Implementing more effective business and operating models allows organisations to improve productivity, agility, information access, and transparency. Capital market leaders increasingly recognize the cloud as a destination for industry actors to access advanced software applications to synchronize the enterprise and optimize operations.
Advancing system infrastructure by utilising cloud software offers excellent opportunities to break down operational and data silos for better integrated, more streamlined workflows. It can provide a competitive advantage by influencing revenue generation, helping to decrease costs and avoid suboptimal use of resources, as well as providing advanced analytics and quicker insights. Moreover, it helps to reinforce IT security as the main cloud providers have extreme security standards - Esgaia utilises AWS Web Services for application hosting.
ESG Data and Infrastructure
Economic activities of all sorts have impacts on people and the planet. Responsible investing strives to ensure we understand and can better manage these risks and impacts. Over the years, the development and implementation of ESG strategies have led to major investments by investors in data, people (often in dedicated teams), and technology.
Traditionally, the esg research vendor landscape has utilised subscription models to meet investor demands for a differentiated set of research components to support responsible investing strategies. Today, this market consists of several hundred actors across the well-known one-stop-shops to more specialised firms targeting specific niches. In recent years, there’s been an increasing focus on digital infrastructure and related SaaS/DaaS capabilities that connects these oftentimes siloed data sources, focusing on research & data management, analytical and reporting capabilities, and so forth.
Underlying Market Growth
With global ESG labeled AuM poised for further significant growth in the years ahead, the esg data market is expected to continue its march forward, estimated to have crossed the 1$bn mark in 2021 according to a study by Opimas. This development has fueled considerable M&A activity over the last decade or so by mainstream esg research providers such as Sustainalytics, MSCI, and ISS, while more lately RMS providers and credit agencies have been acquiring firms to expand their own capacity and human capital.
Esgaia’s solution
Benefitting from the aforementioned market growth, the implementation of software and migration to the cloud in the asset management industry, as well as the general increase in business process automation, Esgaia is, by and large, a result of these trends; Having identified an underserved market segment where we address the overlooked challenge of effective engagement management, we are dedicated to the active ownership space and in particular how we can deploy technology to help optimize the engagement process.
To establish a market-relevant offering, we keep a close dialogue with clients to ensure product development is rooted in a thorough understanding of investors’ challenges. Over time, we will follow a “layer cake” strategy of building additional products that empower investors to excel in their strategy and process. This includes the vision of a broader engagement ecosystem that help address investor challenges and reduce market barriers - e.g. around engagement across asset classes, lack of transparency, and collaboration - to in turn help drive sustainable progress and real-world outcomes.
Please contact us if you want to know more.
//The Esgaia Team