SAIF, Nexus And Omidyar Backs CSR Management Startup Goodera

Bengaluru-based CSR lifestyle management platform Goodera has raised an undisclosed amount in a Series B funding round led by SAIF Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, and Omidyar Network.

The startup had raised Series A funding of $5.5 Mn from Nexus Ventures Partners and Omidyar Network in 2017.

In another development, Mumbai Angels (MA), which had first invested in Goodera in 2015, also announced its exit from Goodera. Nandini Manisghka, CEO and managing director of Mumbai Angels, in a press statement, said, “Our focus on exits is key to the value we add as a network.” The first exit by Mumbai Angels was when Goodera raised Series A funding in 2017.

We expect more of our companies funded at the angel round to become the investment of choice for VCs as they look for quality investments.”

Goodera has developed a platform for companies to keep track of the progress of their corporate social responsibility projects (CSR) and conduct measure-impact assessments. The platform offers companies a dashboard through which they can manage grant requests, among others. The startup was founded in 2014 by Richa Bajpai and Abhishek Humbad.

Goodera has more than 150 large enterprise clients and over 24 Global Fortune 500 companies have adopted its solution to manage, measure, and report their CSR projects across more than 30 countries. Goodera competes with startups such as Corporate 360, CyberGrants, Yourcause, CAUSECAST, and FLUXX, among others.

The energy sector leads in terms of CSR spends, closely followed by financial services, IT and ITes, metals and mining, FMCG, auto, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, engineering and manufacturing, chemicals, and finally, telecom companies.

Chemical and telecom are the sectors that spent the least on their CSR activities, even though chemicals showed a positive growth of 53% in FY17.