Matter Launches SDG Alignment Tool for Portfolio and Fund Analysis

COPENHAGEN, Denmark, September 22, 2022 (Newswire.com) - To celebrate the 77th United Nations General Assembly, Danish fintech Matter today launches an analysis tool for professional investors who want to understand how their investments align with the objectives set forth in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Since the UN SDGs were adopted seven years ago, there has been an annual funding gap of over 2tn USDG between the goals, and the financing made available to back them. Achieving the SDGs therefore requires the active involvement of not only nation states but also private capital markets that play a crucial role in incentivizing companies to align their business models with sustainable outcomes.

"Previously, the investment community has been relying heavily on ESG ratings and negative exclusions when trying to build sustainable investment strategies. These tools may be good for managing risk and exposure to certain themes but lack the ability to identify impactful business models and solutions", says Emil Fuglsang, co-founder at Matter.

With the new tool, Matter allows investors to quickly analyze how multiple portfolios, funds and market indexes perform against the UN SDGs, and turn these insights into reports in seconds.

Emil Fuglsang continues: "We were founded with the mission to make capital work for people and the planet, and not the other way around. By enabling financial institutions to easily get the big picture on how their investments align with the objectives of the UN SDGs, we are taking one more step in that direction".

The SDG alignment tool is built on a large dataset that details how the different revenue streams of more than 57,000 companies are aligned or misaligned with various targets under each of the 17 SDGs. This allows investors to quickly understand how their bonds and equity portfolios either contribute to or block the advancement of the UN SDGs, and dive deep into the granularity of the analyses.

"The SDGs, agreed upon by all countries in the world, provide a common language for the change we are trying to collectively achieve. By analysing revenue, you can look past communication and statements, and focus on the core impact of a company - its products and services. By doing so, we hope to offer more transparent and intuitive sustainability analyses than what is currently offered in the market. We want to help investors better trust the frameworks and output of analyses, and thereby act with more confidence when making investment decisions'', says Emil Fuglsang.

Matter is a Copenhagen-based company specialising in ESG data, analytics, and reporting solutions for the financial industry, serving asset owners, managers and intermediaries globally. The company provides granular and intuitive sustainability solutions that go beyond conventional ESG ratings. 

Source: Matter