Measurabl, a startup developing a platform for environmental, social and governance (ESG) data in the real estate space, today announced that it raised $93 million in a Series D funding tranche co-led by Energy Impact Partners and Sway Ventures.
The round, which Measurabl CEO Matt Ellis described as oversubscribed, brought the company’s total raised to more than $170 million. Moderne Ventures, WVV, Suffolk Construction, Broadscale, Camber Creek, Salesforce Ventures, Building Ventures, Constellation Technology Ventures, Concrete Ventures, RET Ventures, Colliers and Lincoln Property Company were among the others participating.
“This funding allows Measurabl to further enhance its market-leading ESG technologies, expand to new geographies and ensure the real estate industry has the investment grade data necessary to transition to a sustainable, profitable future for all,” Ellis told TechCrunch in an email interview.
Measurabl, founded in 2013 by Ellis, the former director of sustainability solutions at CBRE, the commercial real estate services and investment firm, is riding the wave of startups in the ESG sector attracting serious venture backing. Measurabl offers tools for managing, benchmarking, reporting and tracking the sustainability of a real estate business, from building-level operations to boardroom and capital markets activities.
Measurabl’s tech can automate the collection of electricity, water, fuel, district and waste data from utilities, for example. Or it can maintain social and governance documents alongside environmental data.
“Measurabl’s … solutions are critical for companies seeking to streamline their operations and gain a competitive edge in an increasingly data-driven world,” Brian Nugent, a general partner at Sway Ventures, said in an emailed statement. “As the real estate industry moves toward a more sustainable future, Measurabl’s innovative approach to data management will be essential in providing investment-grade reporting and analysis. This is not just a matter of meeting ESG standards; it is a financial imperative.”
According to a Dow Jones survey, ESG investments are projected to more than double in the next three years, accounting for 15% of all investments by 2025. But recent U.S. political headwinds, such as an attempt spearheaded by Senate and House Republicans to overturn a Labor Department rule allowing retirement plans to consider ESG factors when making investment decisions, threaten to depress the market’s growth.
Case in point: During the final months of 2022, investors pulled nearly $6.2 billion more out of sustainable funds than they put in, according to Morningstar.
Measurabl’s successful financing would suggest that there’s still an appetite for ESG, though. The company’s momentum most likely had something to do with it; Measurabl has over 1,000 customers and claims to be used by 40% of global real estate asset managers.
Another factor in Measurabl’s favor is the increasing pressure on the real estate market to change — often in the form of municipal-level carbon emissions laws. (According to one source, real estate drives roughly 39% of total worldwide emissions — much of it generated by manufacturing materials used in buildings and the rest from the buildings themselves and generating energy to power the buildings.) Estimates out of the U.N. climate conference COP26 suggest that $14 trillion of buildings will be uninsurable over the next 20 years if they don’t meet climate and efficiency standards.
“Measurabl is the world’s most widely adopted ESG data management platform for real estate,” Ellis said. “[Customers use it to] decarbonize buildings, mitigate physical climate risk, comply with regulation and underwrite sustainability risks in real estate transactions.”