Sustainability underwriting and portfolio management requires prompt, seamless, and accurate ESG and Impact data; yet collecting, measuring, and reporting on this data is a manual and cumbersome process for private companies with overreliance on spreadsheets and emails. Off-the-shelf solutions lack the flexibility and nimbleness to quickly adopt to evolving fund and regulatory requirements, thereby further increasing reliance on user-defined tools.
The KPMG ESG and financial services no-code implementation team developed a technology-enabled and SFDR-aligned underwriting tool for a global asset manager’s sustainable investment fund based on the client’s requirements that makes its pre- and post-investment ESG and Impact operations significantly easier, timelier, and nimbler. The custom-built digital tool incorporates the latest ESG and Impact requirements with an emphasis on key assurance considerations. The application is deployed on an enterprise ready no-code platform, Unqork, enabling the flexibility to respond to evolving ESG regulations and market standards 10 times faster than traditional approaches. Further, the tool is integrated with client systems such as DealCloud, Pitchbook, and SSO, and can be further integrated with the client’s and portfolio company's systems.
The client integrated the tool into its processes for sustainability due diligence, timely reporting, and risk management. It is expected that when fully leveraged, this tool will drive meaningful advantages, including:
- Reduced portfolio company processing time and errors
- Significantly reduced time to market for ongoing changes
- Increased analyst productivity by eliminating manual processes and reconciliations
- Data for investor, internal, and regulatory reporting for easy consumption into the client-chosen reporting tool.
Key features of the tool include, but are not limited to:
- Seamless ESG and sustainability data collection from targets through a digital interface with in-platform guidance to improve completion rates and data accuracy
- Alignment with ESG Data Convergence Initiative metrics through rules-based data collection and data validation checks
- Alignment with Article 9, with the ability to adjust for Article 8, and key assurance considerations embedded throughout
- Integrated with client’s internal applications such as DealCloud, Pitchbook and ability to integrate with the portfolio company systems, reporting systems such as Workiva, other ESG tools (e.g., emission calculators) and other third-party APIs
- Real-time GPs and investor dashboards to access portfolio or company-level views
- Period-over-period data collection from portfolio companies, including analytics and peer benchmarking capabilities
- Reporting data for consumption into client’s reporting tool of choice for internal users, investors, and regulatory audiences
- Full audit and data lineage capabilities.
How KPMG can help
The KPMG professionals’ knowledge of the private equity industry and ESG combined with our technology implementation capabilities resulting from our strategic alliance with Unqork has enabled us to deliver end-to-end services—from strategy to implementation—to our clients. KPMG can help:
- Prepare a detailed inventory of your ESG data needs and identify synergies across reporting priorities and streamline data collection and reporting
- Review current data collection and reporting practices relative to standards, stakeholder demands, and industry leading practices
- Design and implement data collection and analytics technology
- Provide advisory services to onboard targets and portfolio companies to the tech platform
- Provide training and program-level process and reporting guidance to help ensure consistency and accuracy of data reported
- Understand the data quality and provide insights on assurance-ready data, methodologies, processes, and disclosures that are relevant to the organization and align with the organization’s strategy, commitments, and regulatory requirements
- Deliver tool enhancements and maintenance services
In the face of increasingly dynamic ESG compliance requirements, KPMG and Unqork decode ESG and can help you rapidly digitize ESG operations with flexibility.
