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Tech in Asia Conference was held in October 2023 in Jakarta, Indonesia. The main event of the conference, 'Startup Arena Pitch Battle 2023', featured six startups competing for the top prize. The winner was Handprint.
Handprint is a Singapore-based sustainability firm offering a SaaS subscription service that connects UN SDGs impact projects around the world with companies' ESG management strategies.
The startup's vision is to support the transition from an extractive economy to a regenerative economy. It curates and digitizes impact projects from around the world, has science-based analytics tools to measure impact, and supports impact reporting.
Handprint connects businesses that want to be ESG-conscious with the right impact projects to grow their revenue, and organizations that run social impact projects with opportunities to raise the resources they need.
For instance, when a customer purchases a product through Ultra Football's website, the company shows them a pop-up video that illustrates their contribution to the environment (such as a tree being planted), driving more conversions and revenue growth.
ESG has been criticized on the one hand for focusing on ideology over profit. Some companies have been blamed for failing to deliver on their ESG commitments. The fact that ESG is a non-financial factor adds to this sentiment, as returns on ESG funds have been declining in the U.S., leading to the launch of anti-ESG funds.
However, ESG is still a significant factor in enhancing corporate credibility and helping companies respond to the needs of their stakeholders.
Moreover, the Korean government has made it mandatory for all companies listed on the KOSPI with assets of more than KRW 2 trillion to publish a "sustainability report" from 2025, without exception. Therefore, it is still important to adhere to the basic principles of ESG.
Addressing environmental, social, and governance issues is still an ongoing part of any company's growth journey, including startups. Like Handprint's case, it seems that efforts to achieve ESG in a variety of ways will continue, even if they are not directly focused on the specific business.
Written by underdogs
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