Goodera Raises $5.5 Mn From Nexus Venture Partners, Others

Bengaluru-based Goodera (formerly NextGen), a CSR and sustainability management platform has raised $5.5 Mn Series A funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network. Former Head of Global Operations at Airbnb, Varsha Rao, also participated in the round.

With this move, Naren Gupta, co-founder of Nexus Venture Partners will join the Goodera Board.

Commenting on the funding, Gupta said, “As billions of dollars flow annually through the global ecosystem of social and community good, an innovative technology platform like Goodera enables corporates to measure and optimise their CSR and sustainability goals in a simple, transparent, and engaging manner.”

Launched in 2014, by Abhishek Humbad and Richa Bajpai, Goodera helps companies manage their sustainability needs – right from strategy development, to on-ground implementation, to reporting and audit across the value chain.

The Goodera technology platform leverages cloud, mobile, voice and big data platform, embedded with strong domain expertise, to enable, and empower corporates to manage their CSR and sustainability goals.

Co-founder Richa Bajpai said, “CSR activities need to go beyond a quarterly report email with a picture of a poor child to answering real questions, such as where the money was spent and how effectively a programme was helping beneficiaries. Through the Goodera platform, the entire CSR lifecycle gets revived, from Excel sheets to automation and from automation to data insights so that corporates can make data-driven decisions.”

The startup will use the money to strengthen its product and expand in India and the US. Apart from this, the funds will be utilised for advancement in technology, deepening domain expertise, and supporting customer acquisition and experience.

Currently, based out of Menlo Park and Bengaluru, the startup claims to have over 150 corporates use the Goodera platform in over 30 countries. Its clientele includes Amazon.com, Cargill, DELLEMC, Capgemini, and Tata Communications among others. The company claims that it has about $150 Mn CSR capital managed through Goodera platform. As per a company statement, 10% of corporate India’s total CSR spend is managed on Goodera. Currently, there are 200K employees globally volunteer using Goodera.

Prior to this in February 2015, NextGen raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Mumbai Angels and a group of angel investors based in the Silicon Valley and India.

In September 2016, Social Quotient a startup for social causes raised an undisclosed amount of funding from fashion designer Anita Dongre and her son Yash Dongre. The mother-son duo partnered with Milind Sarwate, founder, Increate Value Advisors for the investment. Earlier this month Gurugram-based Hungry Foal, a for-profit social venture raised an undisclosed amount of debt from SBI under the Stand up India Scheme.

Other startups, apart from Goodera that work for social causes include Corporate360, a SaaS startup that also runs a programme called SmartWorker. Apart from this crowdfunding platforms such as Milaap and Impact GURU that look to facilitate campaigns for concerned citizens to make donations for social ventures.