Datamaran: Corporate ESG Intelligence and Governance Platform

Datamaran has built a business automating one of corporate sustainability’s most tedious tasks: figuring out which environmental, social and governance issues actually matter. The London-based software company raised $33m in September 2024 from Morgan Stanley Expansion Capital, bringing total funding to $53.6m since its 2014 launch. Revenue more than doubled to $8.6m in 2024, up from $4m the prior year, as companies scrambled to meet Europe’s sweeping new disclosure rules.

The timing couldn’t be better. The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive began its phased rollout in 2025, requiring thousands of companies to conduct double materiality assessments that identify which ESG topics pose financial risks and where their operations create environmental or social impacts. Traditional approaches involve hiring consultants, conducting stakeholder surveys and spending months compiling spreadsheets. Datamaran’s pitch is that artificial intelligence can do most of that work faster and cheaper, letting clients refresh their assessments quarterly instead of annually.

The platform uses AI to scan regulatory databases across 190 jurisdictions, news media, corporate filings and social channels, tracking over 400 external risk factors in real time. That includes everything from carbon pricing policies and supply chain labor standards to biodiversity regulations and cyber threats. The algorithms analyze this flood of data to tell companies which ESG issues warrant board attention and investor disclosure. When the EU Parliament voted in December 2025 to narrow CSRD’s scope to only companies with over 1,000 employees and €450m revenue, removing roughly 90% of initially covered firms, clients received automatic notifications about the regulatory shift.

Nearly 200 blue-chip clients now pay for subscriptions, including Dell Technologies, Cisco Systems, PepsiCo, Kraft Heinz, JPMorgan Chase and Deloitte. The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, which drafted the CSRD standards themselves, uses Datamaran’s software. American Electric Power invested in the company’s £11.7m Series B round in 2022 alongside lead investor Fortive, then deployed the platform across its operations. Sandy Nessing, the utility’s chief sustainability officer, said the software helped identify emerging regulatory threats that could affect the company’s power generation assets.

The core product tackles those double materiality assessments required under CSRD. Users input their industry, geography and business model, then Datamaran’s AI processes regulatory text, peer disclosures and stakeholder commentary to recommend which topics deserve scrutiny. Companies can assign up to 25 internal reviewers per issue, with the platform automatically calculating weighted scores for audit trails. This replaces the manual process of surveying executives, analyzing responses in Excel and justifying decisions to auditors.

Beyond initial compliance, the technology provides ongoing monitoring that alerts clients when regulations change in jurisdictions where they operate or when competitors shift their sustainability priorities. If a peer company suddenly starts disclosing water stress risks, Datamaran flags it. If California passes new climate legislation affecting their supply chain, the system sends notifications. This continuous scanning addresses a fundamental problem: ESG risks don’t wait for annual reporting cycles, but most companies only update their materiality assessments once a year.

Peer benchmarking represents another core capability. The platform maintains a database of 9,000 companies, letting users compare their ESG disclosures against industry rivals. The IROs Benchmarking module shows exactly how competitors frame sustainability issues in their reports. A Topics Benchmarking tool reveals what targets peers have set on material issues like greenhouse gas emissions or diversity metrics. Denise Vaughn, Ferguson Enterprises’ ESG vice president, said the feature let her team prepare board materials in minutes rather than days when executives asked about competitor commitments.

Datamaran added generative AI capabilities in July 2024 through its Suite platform. A proprietary large language model powers a Targets feature that analyzes what competitors have publicly committed to on specific ESG topics, then generates draft sustainability targets based on peer benchmarks and regulatory requirements. Other modules include Report Search for analyzing corporate filings, Regulatory Search for tracking policy developments, and DMA Evaluate for updating double materiality assessments. The company holds patents on its natural language processing technology, though AI accuracy depends on training data quality and can miss nuance in jurisdictions with less digital documentation.

The business model depends on companies viewing ESG data management as infrastructure requiring specialized software rather than outsourced consulting. Annual subscription revenue now comprises the bulk of income, suggesting clients renew rather than treating Datamaran as a one-time project tool. The company claims its technology reduces materiality assessment costs by 70% compared to traditional consultant-led processes, though it doesn’t disclose pricing or typical contract values.

Co-founder and CEO Marjella Lecourt-Alma, who previously worked in sustainable finance, started the business with Jérôme Basdevant and Jean-Philippe Lecourt in 2014. Early backers included West Hill Capital, Run Capital and North Haven Capital. Strategic investors Dell Technologies Capital, PepsiCo and Walgreens Boots Alliance came aboard before the Series B, giving Datamaran access to enterprise clients testing ESG software. The company now employs around 130 people across offices in London, New York and Valencia.

Lecourt-Alma said the Morgan Stanley funding will accelerate US growth and advance AI development. The appointment of Sebastian Hempstead as chief commercial officer in January 2025 signals those expansion ambitions, particularly targeting American multinationals with European operations facing CSRD compliance. The Securities and Exchange Commission’s climate disclosure rules, though scaled back and currently stayed by courts, still loom as a potential catalyst for domestic demand.

Competition comes from different angles. Established players like Workiva offer broader corporate reporting software that includes ESG modules. Newer platforms like Persefoni focus on carbon accounting, while Watershed builds climate programs. Datamaran differentiates itself through external risk monitoring rather than internal data collection. While competitors help companies measure their own emissions or track supplier audits, Datamaran scans the outside world for regulatory shifts and stakeholder expectations that might force strategy changes.

That positioning has worked as CSRD deadlines approached. Large EU companies reported on 2024 operations in 2025, with the regulation extending to smaller firms and foreign multinationals through 2028. Even with December’s scope reduction, thousands of companies still face mandatory double materiality assessments. Similar regulations emerged in California, which passed climate disclosure laws in 2023, and other jurisdictions are eyeing EU standards as templates.

Questions remain about sustained demand once companies complete initial CSRD compliance. If regulations stabilize and materiality assessments become routine, clients might view the software as less essential. Datamaran’s bet is that external risk monitoring provides ongoing value beyond one-time regulatory projects, justifying recurring subscriptions. The company produced a documentary series called “New Heroes of Sustainable Business” that premiered at 2023 Climate Week NYC, profiling executives using ESG data strategically. It’s part marketing, part thought leadership, aimed at sustainability officers who control software budgets and advocate what the company calls “smart ESG.”

The company represents a broader trend of software unbundling corporate functions previously handled by Big Four accounting firms or strategy consultancies. Just as Salesforce automated customer relationship management and Workday standardized HR systems, ESG platforms promise to systematize sustainability workflows. The difference is ESG lacks the decades of established practices that finance or HR teams follow, making the category less mature and more fragmented. Datamaran occupies a niche addressing a specific regulatory pain point, and its ability to expand beyond CSRD compliance work into permanent corporate risk management infrastructure will determine whether it becomes essential or remains a passing response to Europe’s disclosure mandates.

At $8.6m in annual revenue with nearly 200 enterprise clients, the company has proven the concept works. Whether it can scale to profitability while competitors enter the market and regulations potentially stabilize presents the next test. The European regulatory wave that powered recent growth could either establish ESG software as standard infrastructure or prove to be a temporary surge in demand that subsides once companies build internal capabilities. For now, Datamaran is riding that wave, positioning itself as the platform that turns ESG compliance from a consulting project into an automated workflow.