Social Value Portal secures £8.5 million Series B investment led by Mercia
Funding round led by Mercia will drive expansion in private sector
Social Value Portal (SVP), the UK’s leading platform for measuring and monitoring social impact, has secured £8.5m in a Series B funding round led by Mercia with support from existing investor Beringea.
This investment will enable SVP to tap into growing demand from the public and private sectors, and launch a new Social Value Academy to help educate business leaders and embed social value into business decision making and delivery.
Founded in 2014 by Guy Battle, former lead sustainability partner at Deloitte, SVP enables organisations to attribute a financial measure to the social good they deliver to communities, people, and the environment. It also helps them identify opportunities to increase their positive impact.
The company, which is based in London with an office in Manchester, today supports more than 16,000 users, from UK public sector bodies such as the NHS and Met Office to global corporates such as Accenture, Vodafone and Fujitsu. SVP is used by over 100 public sector buyers nationwide and is supported by the Local Government Association.
In total, it has enabled users to track over £17bn of social value, up from £2bn at the time of its Series A in 2020. It is also on course to hit its pledge of helping organisations deliver £100bn of social value by the end of 2026.
Measurement of non-financial impact has become increasingly important as organisations face greater regulation and scrutiny from the public, investors and other stakeholders. Since 2012, the Social Value Act has required UK public sector bodies to evaluate ‘economic, social and environmental well-being’ as part of public tendering processes, and social value can account for up to 30 per cent of the total weighting when awarding tenders.
Guy Battle, founder and CEO of Social Value Portal, commented: “These are really exciting times for our business and we are delighted that Mercia have invested in us alongside Beringea to help us scale and support more organisations to deliver a positive contribution to society and the planet. Their investment will allow us to continue to improve and innovate, making it easier for members provide to more social good.”
Mercia was investing from its Northern Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) and its EIS funds. Adam Watts, software investor at Mercia, commented: “Corporates are facing increasing pressure from customers and shareholders to demonstrate their ESG credentials. While Environmental and Governance reporting initially received more attention, Social impact has now come into focus, however this has historically been challenging to quantify. Social Value Portal has established itself as the market-leading platform for social impact reporting, and its growth since the previous funding round is testament to management’s understanding of the challenges customers face. We are delighted to be partnering with Guy and his team to further develop the platform, and capitalise on its unique position in the market.”
Maria Wagner, Partner, Beringea added: “Since our initial investment in 2020, Social Value Portal has firmly established itself as a leader in measuring and reporting social value for organisations and corporates, or the “S” in ESG. Having successfully secured this round of investment, SVP now has a tremendous opportunity to build on this progress and continue to expand.”
ENDS
Press contacts
Alison Dwyer
Head of Marketing & Communications
Mercia Asset Management PLC
+44 (0) 7464 480 137
Pauline Rawsterne
PR Agent
Turquoise PR
+44 (0) 161 860 6063
+44 (0) 780 163 9816
About Mercia Asset Management PLC
Mercia is a proactive venture capital investor that aims to be a start-up’s first-choice partner for growth. Mercia currently has c. £1.4 billion of assets under management and, since its IPO in December 2014, has invested in a portfolio of over 400 start-ups from pre-seed to Series B and beyond. Mercia makes initial equity investments of between £500k and £10 million across all sectors, and has an active investment thesis supporting the growth of the UK’s SpaceTech industry. The firm has nine offices in the UK and over 60 in its investment team, all drawing on their experiences as founders, PhD scientists, software engineers, corporate financiers and management consultants to help our partner companies successfully achieve their ambitions.
Mercia’s venture funds sit alongside the Mercia Group’s wider private equity, debt and proprietary balance sheet capital, in order to provide a ‘Complete Connected Capital’ solution for our portfolio. Mercia Asset Management PLC is quoted on AIM with the epic “MERC”.
About Social Value Portal
Social Value Portal is an online solution that provides precise, standardised reporting to enable organisations to quantify and maximise the social value generated – making good go further. It provides the tools to measure, manage and report both financial and non-financial data in a meaningful, robust and transparent way for all stakeholders.
Social Value Portal launched the Social Value TOMs system in 2017, alongside the independent National Social Value Taskforce. The Framework provides a minimum reporting standard for measuring social value, integrating the standards into their measurement approach as a minimum.
In 2022, Social Value Portal achieved B Corp status, scoring above average in all assessed sections and an overall score of 114 out of 200. The company’s aim is to promote better business and community wellbeing through the integration of social value into day-to-day business across all sectors.
Linkedin: social-value-portal Twitter: @socialvalueport
Press contact:
Claire Fitzgerald
The Marketing Pod [email protected] +44 121 818 4063 | +44 121 818 3743
