Preparing for next year’s sustainability report with Kara

November 25, 2024

As the year draws to a close, the clock is ticking for COOs, CFOs, and Sustainability Directors at investment firms to meet escalating sustainability reporting demands

With investors, portfolio companies, and regulators placing growing emphasis on sustainability and transparency, accurate and timely reporting has become a critical priority. With the pressure mounting, how can your firm ensure compliance without wasting time drowning in manual data collection?

Emerging regulations like California’s SB54 and the not-so-new SFDR in Europe are raising the bar for compliance, placing even more responsibility on firms to collect and manage sustainability data for their portfolios. For PE, VC and debt funds, staying on top of these obligations is critical to maintaining investor confidence and meeting regulatory expectations.

The good news? Kara can streamline your year-end reporting, significantly reducing the time and resources required, while ensuring full compliance with evolving regulations and LP requirements. 

Here’s how your firm can prepare for year-end sustainability reporting more efficiently with Kara. 

Centralize sustainability data collection for multiple portfolio companies

For firms managing investments across multiple portfolio companies, collecting sustainability data is a daunting task. From carbon emissions and diversity statistics to governance practices, gathering relevant information from portfolio companies requires significant coordination. 

Manually collecting this data can be time-consuming and error-prone. Kara streamlines this process by centralizing data collection, enabling investment firms to gather information from all their portfolio companies easily and storing it in a single place. Instead of chasing down individual reports or waiting for data to trickle in, Kara’s software allows portfolio companies to input their data directly, automating up to 84% of the manual effort.

For firms managing a medium to large number of investments, this automation results in 93% time savings and ensures a consistent, accurate data collection process. 

“As an impact-focused firm, it is vitally important for us to understand the sustainability and impact performance of our portfolio companies. Kara has made this easy from day one, from collecting data to delivering insights." Johan Schwind, Managing Director, URBAN-X

Unlike generic sustainability data platforms, Kara is built specifically for investment firms managing multiple portfolio companies, designed to simplify sustainability reporting and ensure your firm meets the latest regulatory requirements and LP disclosures with ease.

Simplify reporting for multiple stakeholders

CFOs, Directors of Sustainability and COOs in investment firms often need to generate tailored sustainability reports for a range of stakeholders, including LPs, regulators, and portfolio companies. Preparing these reports manually is not only time-consuming, but also challenging when each stakeholder requires different levels of detail or compliance with varying frameworks like the Sustainability Data Convergence Initiative (EDCI), Europe Invest, or the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).

Kara streamlines this entire process by automating the generation of reports. Once data is collected, this saves you hours you can use for other projects, while ensuring  consistency and accuracy. Whether you’re preparing a detailed regulatory report or a high-level summary for LPs, Kara allows you to deliver precise, tailored information without duplicating effort.

Save time with year-round monitoring and real-time insights

End-of-year sustainability reporting doesn’t have to be a last-minute scramble. The most efficient firms track their sustainability metrics year-round, ensuring they can easily compile data when reporting deadlines arrive and stay on track strategically. With Kara's real-time dashboards, not only can your firm monitor key sustainability metrics continuously, but you can also provide portfolio companies with the tools to do the same —fostering transparency and proactive performance management across the board.

By equipping portfolio companies with continuous sustainability tracking, VC firms can help them identify trends early, address potential risks, and align with long-term sustainability goals. This year-round monitoring not only enhances decision-making but also simplifies year-end reporting by ensuring that all necessary data is already in place.

Optimize stakeholder communication without extra effort

Clear communication of sustainability performance is key for firms looking to build stronger relationships with LPs, portfolio companies, and regulators. Kara comes equipped with visualization tools and reporting features that make it easy to present complex data in a digestible format, saving time and ensuring effective communication with stakeholders.

“Kara gave us the confidence to start tracking realized and planned future impact metrics across our portfolio companies. The platform guarantees data integrity and a good experience for our founders.” Amanda Rohrer, Senior Associate, Blackhorn Ventures

Rather than spending hours creating charts and summaries, the software generates clear visuals that help convey your firm’s sustainability performance with minimal effort. These features allow for easy customization, ensuring that the right information is communicated to the right stakeholders.

Conclusion: let Kara do the heavy lifting

As year-end approaches, the pressure is on to meet sustainability reporting requirements. You already know the stakes —investors demand transparency, regulators expect compliance, and you need to deliver accurate, timely reports across your entire portfolio. Kara is the solution that makes this process easier, faster, and stress-free.

Built specifically for investment firms, Kara automates data collection and reporting, slashing the time you spend chasing portfolio companies and ensuring compliance with the latest regulations. Whether you’re juggling multiple frameworks like SFDR or EDCI, Kara centralizes everything, so you don’t have to worry about missing a detail.

This is about more than meeting deadlines. It’s about positioning your firm as a leader in sustainability and freeing up your team’s time for strategic work. Kara will save you time, reduce manual errors, and give you the peace of mind that your reports will meet investor and regulatory expectations.

Don’t let year-end reporting take over your schedule.

If you are not yet working with us, reach out to us and let Kara simplify your sustainability reporting so you can focus on what really matters —growing your firm and driving value through sustainability.