Workday Ventures Invests In ESG SaaS Platform Provider pulsESG

Workday Ventures has invested in pulsESG, a software startup that develops a SaaS platform that allows customers to track various compliance initiatives. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.

Workday Ventures is the venture capital arm of Workday -- the well-known SaaS platform provider for HR and business management applications. The $250 million fund, launched in February 2018, targets such investment areas as employee engagement and talent acquisition, integration and robotic process automation (RPA), strategic sourcing and spend analytics, and financial management.

pulsESG, founded in 2021, is based in San Francisco, California. The has 26 employees listed on LinkedIn as of February 2023. The firm's SaaS-based software provides customers with the "single point of visibility, quality and control for ESG data," the company asserts. Key pulsESG partners include CDP, GRI and the International Financial Reporting Standards.

Additional pulsESG investors include Accenture -- the global IT consulting firm. As part of that deal, pulsESG joined Accenture Ventures' Project Spotlight, which connects emerging technology software startups with the Global 2000 to fill strategic innovation gaps.

The pulsESG platform is emerging at a key time. Indeed, only 26% of financial leaders say that they have clear, reliable data to underpin each ESG key performance indicator, Accenture research found. Moreover, 44% of those financial executives mention an "inability to define and prioritize material ESG issues for disclosure."

In theory, pulsESG's platform may help customers to close those ESG knowledge gaps.