GreenArc Capital Partners With BNP Paribas To Mitigate Impact Washing

GreenArc Capital, in partnership with BNP Paribas, has been awarded the Financial Sector Technology Innovation Proof of Concept (POC) Grant. The POC grant is part of the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) scheme under the Financial Sector Development Fund administered by Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and is provided as funding support for experimentation, development and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector.

GreenArc is a Singapore based impact fintech that helps to close the UN SDG financing gap by directing more private capital towards social and environmental investments.

The POC consists of an impact measurement and audit project and is an extension of last year’s collaboration between GreenArc and BNP Paribas to develop the GreenArc platform – an impact investment solution, with an embedded impact measurement module, that connect investors with curated impact opportunities focussed on financial inclusion and climate action. The solution was a global top 6 finalist at ADB’s 2020 MSME Financial Inclusion challenge as well as a top 10 finalist at Singapore Fintech Festival KPMG Global Hackcelerator.

The project will be led by Rony J Palathinkal, COO of GreenArc Capital, who is also a member of Singapore Fintech Association’s Green and Sustainable Fintech subcommittee.

GreenArc Platform offers a robust and accredited impact measurement system to assess and report the impact of financial investments. The platform uses advanced ML techniques to provide assurance to investors that they are achieving the stated impact objectives of financial products, as well as facilitating investor capital towards true sustainable investments to avoid impact washing – when investors claim a commitment to sustainability and impact without true measurement or reporting. The solution is also offered as an industry first impact API and has been deployed successfully by financial institutions from Asia as well as Europe to measure their debt portfolio’s impact.

Joris Dierckx, Regional Head of Southeast Asia and CEO, Singapore, BNP Paribas said: “Through our partnership with GreenArc to develop an impact measurement and audit platform, we aim to bring transparency to investors and liquidity to select last-mile lenders and microfinance lenders. These funds will then flow to micro, small and medium enterprises and consumers – individuals and businesses who ordinarily would not have access to such financial credit. The FSTI POC grant to GreenArc comes at an opportune moment, when institutional and retail investors are looking for positive investment returns while having a material positive impact on today’s most pressing issues – climate change and economic inequality.”

Bikram Chaudhury, CEO of GreenArc Capital said: “This is an exciting time for sustainable finance where technology can help establish the foundation necessary to drive scale in ESG and impact analysis. Sustainability in investment products is at a pivotal juncture and client demand is driving growth and setting global industry trends. There is a greater need for better integration of sustainability and impact data to reflect the outcomes on society and the environment. This recognition for GreenArc showcases our unique data driven approach to Sustainable Finance. We look forward to working with BNP Paribas on implementing our solution for clients globally.”