SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UpMetrics, the analytics company advancing the way impact organizations collect and integrate data into their stories, today announced a strategic expansion to cover the impact investing space, extending the company’s impact analytics expertise built from serving foundations and nonprofits. Since 2019, UpMetrics has provided foundations and nonprofits across the social sector with its impact measurement, reporting, and storytelling solution. Today, mission-driven impact investors are using the UpMetrics impact analytics platform to guide an advanced approach to outcomes-focused investing.
The impact investing space has experienced exponential growth in recent years, fueled by increasing demand for investments that generate meaningful, measurable social and environmental impact alongside strong financial returns. Still, while calculating financial returns is fairly straightforward, measuring outcomes and transformative change has been challenging for many impact investors.
Trailblazing investors including Camelback Ventures, Clear Vision Impact Fund, and Slauson & Co. are working with UpMetrics to solve the longstanding challenges related to impact measurement, and now have a deeper understanding of outcomes potential and impact achievement throughout the lifecycle of their investments.
Camelback Ventures is using UpMetrics to measure the impact of the Camelback Fellowship, the organization’s flagship program that works to support early stage social impact entrepreneurship among people of color and women.
“With UpMetrics, we have the ability to provide impact metrics dashboards to investors without having to build something from scratch each time. Also, the UpMetrics team has been instrumental in helping us create consistent, repeatable impact surveys, which have revealed valuable insights and made our measurement process more efficient. The time saved allows us to spend more time and energy directly with our Fellows and stakeholders,” said Aaron Walker, CEO and Founder of Camelback Ventures.
Clear Vision Impact Fund is using UpMetrics to measure the impact of its investments in minority-owned businesses and companies serving underperforming communities that have experienced a persistent lack of capital.
“With UpMetrics, we have crafted a robust data-driven screening and measurement process to evaluate the impact of our portfolio companies and prospective investments. We look forward to continuing this effort in tracking and increasing the social impacts of our portfolio companies across the U.S., especially around their training opportunities and local and diverse hiring initiatives,” said Ash Das, Vice President of the Clear Vision Impact Fund.
Slauson & Co., with backing from PayPal, Ashton Kutcher, will.i.am., True Capital Management, and Alpaca VC, is using UpMetrics to assess and measure impact as the firm invests in and guides founders of technology and tech-enabled companies from underrepresented backgrounds.
“Reporting on financial returns and measuring social or environmental impact are vastly different disciplines, and any impact investment professional would agree that impact measurement is the more challenging of the two. At UpMetrics, we are working with a number of impact investors, including Camelback Ventures, Clear Vision Impact Fund, and Slauson & Co., to demystify impact measurement in order to support due diligence, guide investment decisions, and help evaluate the performance of active investments. While UpMetrics has been focused heavily on foundations and nonprofits since we launched our analytics platform, we have seen the need in the impact investing space to leverage data for decision-making and storytelling. Our early success in the impact investing vertical has proven our decision to expand was the right one,” said Drew Payne, CEO of UpMetrics.
About UpMetrics
UpMetrics brings clarity and focus to social impact organizations that feel an urgency to achieve their mission. Founded on a belief that numbers alone can’t convey the value of a project or initiative, UpMetrics transforms streams of data into measurable information so that organizations can visualize and communicate their impact. The UpMetrics platform artfully blends quantitative and qualitative data functions, with customizable tools for collecting, understanding, and communicating impact—uniquely designed for the social sector by people who have built their lives and careers around doing social good.
About Camelback Ventures
Camelback Ventures increases access to opportunity for entrepreneurs of color and women by investing in their ventures and leadership while advocating for fairness in their funding. By seeking solutions in the genius of undervalued entrepreneurs of color, Camelback’s vision is to create livable communities and wealth for future generations to inherit. For more information, visit www.camelbackventures.org.
About Clear Vision Impact Fund
Clear Vision Impact Fund, LP is an investment vehicle founded by Shank Williams Cisneros, LLC, the parent company of Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC and SWS Capital Management, LLC. The General Partner of the Clear Vision Impact Fund is led by Christopher Williams and Suzanne Shank, a combination of diverse entrepreneurs with significant financial and strategic expertise in target markets.
About Slauson & Co.
Slauson & Co. is an early stage venture capital firm investing in the tools, platforms, and people aiding in the development of small businesses as well as culturally relevant consumer tech and tech enabled products. We believe in the power of entrepreneurship and aim to empower the best founders, regardless of their proximity to the traditional venture ecosystem.
