KOCHI: Richa and Abhishek never worked in a corporate before but they realised how large the ecosystem of the Corporate Social Responsibility sector is and the gap in the flow of information and capital in it. Hence, they developed a global CSR and sustainability management technology platform Goodera that helps solve the need for corporates and nonprofit organisations to have a last mile visibility of progress and impact measurement of their CSR projects.
Richa Bajpai, founder and co-CEO, says, “There are billions of dollars flowing through this sector annually. This sector is the third largest employer in the US after manufacture and retail sectors. In India, the corporates spend about two to three billion dollars. There is a huge gap in the flow of information and capital. Since it needs more transparency, we developed Goodera in 2014.”
The duo while working on a startup on renewable energy learned how the CSR sector and NGOs work. They observed that there was a huge difference in what happened on fields and what was communicated in the boardroom of the corporates. Abhishek Humbad, founder and co-CEO, says, “Unlike other functions in the corporate, say HR, there’s no way to manage a CSR activity. With Goodera’s cloud technology, you just have to log in the platform and you can get the status of the project in different sectors and locations on your dashboard.”
The platform helps all stakeholders be it corporates, donors or foundations to monitor and evaluate the work at any given point of time and understand progress of the project.
Richa adds, “The NGO partners enter the information from the field and since it is real time, recorded on Google map, the information cannot be easily fudged up.” Abhishek explains, “It covers all steps from the start. Once a corporate logs in, it can look for the sectors it would like to work and select the NGO after reviewing their applications. They can then get their employees to volunteer for the project.”
More than 150 large enterprises including 24 in Global Fortune 500 have adopted Goodera to measure, manage and report their CSR projects across more than 30 countries including China and Sri Lanka. They claim that ten per cent of corporate India’s total CSR spend is managed on Goodera and two lakh employees globally volunteer using Goodera.
Goodera secured its Series A round of funding of $5.5mn from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network. Varsha Rao, previously Head of Global Operations at Airbnb also participated along with other prominent angels. The funds raised through this round will be utilized in enhancing technology, deepening domain expertise and supporting customer acquisition and experience. They had received seed funding in February 2015 from Mumbai Angels, RedBus Founder Phanindra Sama, Bijou Kurien of Reliance Lifestyle fame amongst others.
They aim to become a trusted and reliable partner for the CSR activities. Abhishek says, “India is the first country in the world with legislated CSR and this has become an advantage. Since we started from India, this has already put us ahead of other countries.” Richa adds, “We wouldn’t call it a challenge but an opportunity to educate people and build an ecosystem to create a larger social impact with the use of technology.”
All you need to know
150 large enterprises, including 24 in Global Fortune 500 have adopted Goodera
Ten per cent of corporate India’s total CSR spend is managed on Goodera
Two lakh employees globally volunteer using Goodera.
Secured $5.5mn in its Series A round of funding
Website: https://goodera.com/