How Novisto is Revolutionising Sustainability Reporting

Please introduce yourself

My name is Charles Assaf and I'm the Co-Founder and CEO of Novisto. 

My academic background is in engineering and my Master's centred around what preceded SaaS – back then it was application service providers. The exposure developed my understanding of consuming software specifically for businesses online.

I was born and raised in Lebanon in the Middle East and came to McGill in Canada as an international student. When I finished, I went to study in the US and started my career in both the US and Europe before coming back to Canada. I am as Canadian as I am Lebanese now – I have lots of pride in being a Canadian, and now Novisto is headquartered here.

My professional background is around enterprise software, specifically building, scaling and managing enterprise software companies. 

I didn't come from the sustainability world, but the problem we ended up solving through Novisto was, to some extent, identified by a venture studio that looked for founders to work with prior to launching a business. My Co-Founder, who's still closely involved as an advisor, was an ESG practitioner. His ESG insight combined with my engineering background, enterprise software expertise and an opportunity to digitally disrupt the sustainability function, built what Novisto is today.

What is Novisto?

Novisto is an enterprise software company launched five years ago. We're based in Canada, but with a very global reach and a focus on helping enterprises create value from their own ESG data through our sustainability reporting software. 

We operate across North America, Europe and the Middle East, and we primarily serve public companies and large private corporations across different sectors. 

We've been VC backed since the start. Our financial partners have been an integral part of the Novisto story and journey, and we're backed by what I believe is the most prominent Canadian VC firm from the series A to the series B to up to the latest capital round.

We're very proud of having built a very sophisticated enterprise software platform for sustainability data management and reporting. We’re also incredibly proud that we’ve positioned Novisto very well in the ESG software space as validated by industry analysts and the calibre of our customers. We have received recognition for being a great employer, a great startup to work for and a fast growing business.

We believe we have a duty to serve leaders across the enterprise segment who lack the specialised tools and system to keep their business ahead of compliance and stakeholder demand when it comes to sustainability information. 

We continue to really be the go-to partner for blue chip clients including Emirates Group, Sanofi, Bombardier, Moderna, Synopsys and Deutsche Bank.

Our capital partners have been integral to our journey:

• White Star Capital
• Inovia Capital
• Portage
• Diagram Ventures
• SCOR Ventures
• Sagard.

We have a very deliberate intent to double down on our international expansions, specifically in Europe, but also more broadly to essentially continue our growth journey.

How is Novisto’s offering navigating the turbulent sustainability regulatory landscape?

We live in a polarised world – you can see the glass half full or half empty depending on your perspective. But fundamentally, I think there is some form of a chasm now between an anti-ESG sentiment in North America and enhanced ESG focus in European views.

European regulation has recently been modified through the omnibus proposal to, primarily, give more time to larger enterprises to have their infrastructure, operational processes and wider organisation ready for that major regulation. As large companies are Novisto’s focus, we know that we can play an important part in this journey. 

On the US side, there is no reason to deny that ESG has become a loaded acronym and we've seen lots of pushback. The SEC is not mandating any specific disclosures, but we continue to see sustainability be a core part of the strategy of these larger firms. All Fortune 500 and Global 2000 companies are building and maturing their sustainability functions and most are seeking external support for their ESG reporting. We're seeing a switch to the core value proposition of sustainability, which has to be linked to value creation for a company. In the US we still see some states mandating, but I think fundamentally investors will still look into sustainability or ESG risk and opportunities when they do their capital allocations and to be able to do so, they demand quality ESG disclosures for these companies. 

Globally, if we look at the SMB versus the mid-market versus the enterprise segment, the ones that tend to be very reactive to noise and to policy changes are primarily the SMBs and the mid-market. They tend to quickly take a step back, change directions. This is not the case for larger companies – they think in a three to five year cycle with projects and initiatives that can't be changed every time you have a new politician in the house. We continue to see large companies mature their sustainability function and expect the same rigour from that function as they do from the financial function in the company.

Can you explore Novisto’s platform please?

Regulations are all about data quality.

We are seeing companies making their sustainability disclosures standardised by way of having a global baseline for reporting. More importantly, these regulations are pushing companies to make their sustainability disclosure audited and digitised. 

If you look inside your typical company, even larger ones, they are really unequipped to meet these requirements. Fundamentally, what's really missing is the right digital infrastructure to be able to comply with these requirements. From a practical standpoint, the companies are really struggling with the status quo, primarily around the current processes that they go through year after year or cycle after cycle to capture and organise their data. They're really struggling with the data collection process because of the nature of sustainability related information.

It's multiple issues covering multiple levels of the organisation – there are different data sources, functions and contributors but there's very little automation. This is typically done in very rudimentary ways, and combined with the low quality of the data that's being captured, there's no quality assurance. 

We built Novisto as a platform that acts as a central system of record for company sustainability related data. We help a company to have the source of truth for their information in a way that enables them to capture, collect and centralise both their structured and unstructured ESG data in a way that ensures the quality and on the readiness of that information. It's easy to say, and there's a lot of companies that say this, but it's very hard to do. We enable companies to produce not just high quality disclosures, but really drive with management insights, and with that comes security and integration.

What is Novisto’s key mission?

Novisto is the only sustainability reporting platform that gives you the tools to efficiently collect, consolidate, approve, disclose and defend your sustainability data, all in one place – elevating the role of sustainability within the enterprise and empowering your colleagues to build a more resilient and sustainable business.

What does the future hold for Novisto?

The future is bright! What keeps us really excited is that we're elevating sustainability at large, through which we are contributing to a more resilient and ambitious world.

We believe that this is a generational opportunity, and whilst there are ebbs and flows, I do believe that the ultimate result is one that the next generation will be proud of. If technology can be a mechanism to help and support and accelerate sustainability, then I think what a great project and cause that's worthy to dedicate our professional life to.

To read the full article in the magazine, click HERE.

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