Maanch

Cover Block

PUBLIC

Name	Maanch
Tagline	A B-Corp certified stewardship and ESG engagement tech platform for institutional investors and corporates.
Headquarters	London, England
Founded	2018
Stage	Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry	Fintech
Technology	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Western Europe
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Solo Founder
Funding Label	Seed (total disclosed ~$10,000,000)

Links

PUBLIC

• Website: https://maanch.com/
• LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/maanch
• Maanch Engagement Tracker: https://maanch-invest.com

Executive Summary

PUBLIC

Maanch is a London-based, B-Corp certified fintech company building a software platform to systematize ESG engagement and investment stewardship for institutional asset managers, a market segment facing intensifying regulatory pressure and operational complexity. The company's founding narrative, which began with tools for mapping philanthropic capital against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has evolved into a focused SaaS and advisory business targeting the professionalization of active ownership workflows [Maanch, September 2023], [PWM].

The core product, the Maanch Engagement Tracker (ET), is positioned as a central hub for logging interactions with portfolio companies, tracking outcomes, and generating reports aligned with frameworks like the UK Stewardship Code and the EU taxonomy. This operational focus on the engagement process itself, rather than just ESG data provision, forms the initial product wedge. The company complements this with sustainability advisory services, including support for B Corp certification and net-zero strategy, creating a hybrid revenue model [Maanch, 2024], [Maanch Invest].

Founder and CEO Darshita Gillies, a former chartered accountant with PwC, brings a finance and impact background to the venture, aiming to converge capital markets with measurable societal outcomes [PWM]. Her solo-founder status and the company's B-Corp certification are presented as core elements of its mission-driven brand identity. The company secured a significant seed funding round of $10 million in September 2023, led by investor Mark Lyttleton, which provides a multi-year runway to refine its product-market fit within the institutional channel [Maanch, September 2023], [Crunchbase, 2023].

Over the next 12-18 months, the key monitorable will be the translation of this capital into tangible enterprise traction. Success hinges on moving beyond early-adopter partnerships, like the referenced work with EdenTree Investment Management, to securing and publicly disclosing a roster of paying asset manager clients for its SaaS platform [Maanch, 2025]. The competitive landscape includes well-funded specialists, making demonstrated client acquisition and retention the primary proof point for the model.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Core company details and the seed round are confirmed by multiple sources; specific customer traction and detailed product metrics are not publicly available.

Taxonomy Snapshot

Axis	Classification
Stage	Seed
Business Model	SaaS
Industry / Vertical	Fintech
Technology Type	Software (Non-AI)
Geography	Western Europe
Growth Profile	Venture Scale
Founding Team	Solo Founder
Funding	Seed (total disclosed ~$10,000,000)

Company Overview

PUBLIC

Maanch was incorporated in London on April 30, 2018, as a limited company with a founding mission to align capital with social and environmental impact [UK Companies House]. The company's origin lies in tools designed to map and track philanthropic funding against the UN Sustainable Development Goals, an effort to bring efficiency to a fragmented ecosystem [PWM]. Founder and CEO Darshita Gillies, a former chartered accountant with PwC, leveraged her finance background to build a platform aimed at connecting impact investors with initiatives driving measurable good [PWM] [eShe, March 2021].

A key operational milestone was the company's certification as a B Corp, which it uses to signal credibility and align its corporate structure with its impact-driven mission [CB Insights]. The product focus evolved from philanthropy tracking to serving institutional investors, culminating in the launch of the Maanch Engagement Tracker, a SaaS platform for ESG stewardship workflows [Maanch Invest]. The most significant financial milestone to date is a $10 million Seed funding round secured in September 2023, led by investor Mark Lyttleton [Maanch, September 2023] [Crunchbase, 2023].

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Confirmed by UK Companies House, company announcements, and multiple publisher reports.

Product and Technology

MIXED

Maanch's product suite is anchored by a core SaaS platform, the Maanch Engagement Tracker (ET), designed to digitize and systematize the historically manual workflows of investment stewardship and ESG engagement for institutional clients [Maanch, 2024]. The platform's stated function is to centralize all engagements with portfolio companies, track interactions, and measure outcomes, generating real-time impact insights from the inputted data to ease reporting burdens and align with frameworks like the UK Stewardship Code, GRI, and the EU taxonomy [Maanch Invest] [Maanch, 2021]. This positions the product as an operating system for stewardship teams, moving beyond passive data provision to active workflow management.

Beyond the core software, the company offers a parallel stream of sustainability advisory services. These services, which the company markets as part of a "360° approach" called Net Societal Impact, include guidance on B Corp certification, building net-zero strategies, and aligning corporate disclosures with major reporting frameworks such as SASB and TCFD [Maanch, 2026]. The advisory arm appears to use the company's B-Corp certification and founder Darshita Gillies's background in impact to provide credibility, creating a combined offering of technology and consultancy [CB Insights].

The company's earlier development work focused on tools for mapping philanthropic and impact funding against the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [PWM]. While the current public emphasis is on the institutional investor-focused Engagement Tracker, this SDG-native data model likely informs the platform's underlying impact measurement capabilities, serving as a key differentiator from generic ESG data providers [Maanch Impact Report 2022]. Specific details on the technology stack are not publicly disclosed, though the company's open roles suggest a focus on standard web application development.

Data Accuracy: GREEN -- Product claims are consistently described across the company's own website, product microsite, and impact reports. Advisory service details are confirmed by the company's 2026 service pages. The earlier SDG mapping focus is corroborated by third-party publisher PWM.

Market Research

PUBLIC The market for ESG stewardship and engagement technology is being reshaped by a wave of new disclosure mandates, creating a clear wedge for platforms that can translate regulatory pressure into operational efficiency for asset managers.

Demand is anchored in a tightening global regulatory environment. The UK Stewardship Code, the EU's Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) collectively require institutional investors to demonstrate systematic oversight of ESG factors within their portfolios [Financial Times]. These rules move beyond simple reporting to mandate evidence of active engagement and voting, a process historically managed through spreadsheets and email. This creates a direct operational pain point that Maanch's Engagement Tracker aims to address by digitizing workflows and centralizing evidence for compliance.

Market sizing for this specific niche of stewardship workflow software is not publicly available from third-party reports. However, the broader ESG data and analytics market provides a relevant analog. According to a Bloomberg Intelligence report cited by S&P Global, the global market for sustainable investment data and analytics was projected to reach $1.3 billion in 2024, with growth driven by regulatory demand and asset manager adoption [S&P Global, 2024]. The segment for engagement and voting tools sits within this larger ecosystem, representing a specialized but critical component for active owners.

Key adjacent markets include generic ESG data providers, proxy voting services, and broader sustainability consulting. While large data vendors offer ESG scores, they typically lack the dedicated workflow engines for managing the lifecycle of direct corporate engagements. Proxy advisors provide voting recommendations and execution but are not designed for tracking bilateral dialogue and measuring impact outcomes. The consultancy layer, which Maanch also offers, is often a separate, manual service. The company's positioning suggests a convergence play, integrating advisory with a purpose-built software layer to own the stewardship operating system.

ESG Data & Analytics Market (2024) | 1.3 | $B

The cited market size, while for a broader category, underscores the substantial and growing budget allocation for tools that help investors navigate sustainability mandates. It indicates a funded buyer persona with a clear problem to solve.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Market sizing is an analogous figure from a third-party report. Regulatory drivers are widely reported but not quantified from a single primary source.

Competitive Landscape

MIXED Maanch's competitive position hinges on its dual identity as a B-Corp certified impact advisor and a software vendor for institutional stewardship workflows, a combination not easily replicated by pure-play data or consulting firms.

Company	Positioning	Stage / Funding	Notable Differentiator	Source
Maanch	B-Corp certified stewardship & ESG engagement tech platform combining SaaS workflow tools with impact advisory.	Seed ($10M, Sep 2023)	Integration of SDG-native advisory services with a regulatory-grade engagement tracker; B-Corp status as a trust signal.	[Maanch, September 2023], [Crunchbase, 2023]
Tumelo	Platform providing shareholder voting and engagement insights to pension funds and asset managers.	Venture Stage (Series A $25M, 2022)	Focus on end-investor transparency and proxy voting; strong traction with UK pension providers.	[Sifted, 2022], [Tumelo]

The competitive map for ESG stewardship software is fragmented, with players attacking different parts of the value chain. Incumbent ESG data giants like MSCI and Sustainalytics offer deep, fundamental company ratings but are not built as workflow engines for active ownership. Challengers such as Tumelo focus sharply on the proxy voting and shareholder resolution pipeline. Adjacent substitutes include generic CRM platforms (e.g., Salesforce) that can be customized for engagement tracking, and a growing field of sustainability reporting software like Plan A or Watershed, which prioritize carbon accounting over investor-company dialogue. Maanch's segment is specifically the digitization of the stewardship officer's role, sitting between data provision and execution.

Maanch's defensible edge today is its integrated advisory layer and its B-Corp certification. The founder's background in impact and accounting provides credibility for the consultancy services, which can serve as a lead-in for the SaaS platform [PWM]. This combination creates a bundled offering that is harder for a pure software vendor to match immediately. However, this edge is perishable; it relies on the founder's personal brand and a small team's capacity. A larger competitor could acquire a boutique advisory firm to replicate the service layer, or regulatory shifts could standardize engagement workflows, reducing the need for bespoke consultancy.

The company is most exposed in direct, feature-for-feature competition with well-funded SaaS peers that have deeper sales penetration in large asset managers. Tumelo's reported $25 million Series A in 2022 suggests greater capital for product development and enterprise sales [Sifted, 2022]. Furthermore, Maanch does not own a critical proprietary dataset on company ESG performance, which remains the domain of the large ratings agencies. Its channel relies on consultative sales, which may scale more slowly than a product-led growth motion adopted by some software competitors.

The most plausible 18-month scenario is one of continued segmentation rather than winner-take-all consolidation. The "winner" in the stewardship workflow niche will be the company that successfully converts early lighthouse clients into multi-year, enterprise-wide contracts. For Maanch, winning looks like expanding its partnership with EdenTree Investment Management into a firm-wide deployment and signing two similar asset managers [Maanch, 2025]. The "loser" in this scenario would be any platform that fails to move beyond pilot projects and demonstrate tangible improvements in reporting efficiency or engagement outcomes for its clients. Market success will be measured in contract depth, not just logo count.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- Competitor funding and positioning are confirmed by single sources (Sifted for Tumelo). Maanch's differentiation is well-documented by its own materials and third-party profiles.

Opportunity

PUBLIC

If Maanch can successfully embed its Engagement Tracker as the operating system for institutional stewardship, it stands to capture a significant portion of a multi-billion dollar market for compliance-grade ESG workflow software. The prize is not just selling a point solution, but becoming the central hub through which asset managers interact with their portfolio companies on sustainability, a role that commands recurring, high-value SaaS contracts and sticky advisory relationships.

The headline opportunity is for Maanch to define the category of stewardship technology. While many firms offer ESG data or reporting tools, Maanch's platform is positioned as a workflow engine specifically for the engagement and voting processes mandated by stewardship codes like the UK's [Financial Times]. The evidence that this outcome is reachable, not merely aspirational, lies in the company's B Corp certification and its foundational work mapping capital to the UN SDGs [Maanch Impact Report 2022]. This impact-native DNA provides credibility with the sustainability teams that are increasingly influential buyers, allowing Maanch to compete on mission alignment where generic software vendors cannot. The $10 million seed round led by Mark Lyttleton, an investor with a known focus on impact and technology, signals institutional confidence in this wedge [Maanch, September 2023].

Growth from a niche tool to a category-defining platform could follow several concrete paths, each with identifiable catalysts.

Scenario	What happens	Catalyst	Why it's plausible
Regulatory Standard-Bearer	The platform becomes the de facto system for demonstrating compliance with evolving EU and UK stewardship regulations.	A major regulatory body references or endorses a specific workflow methodology that aligns with Maanch's tracking capabilities.	The platform is already built to align with the UK Stewardship Code, PRI, and EU taxonomy [Maanch Invest]. Regulatory scrutiny on greenwashing is intensifying, creating demand for auditable engagement trails [Financial Times].
Land-and-Expand in Asset Management	Maanch wins a flagship mandate at a top-20 global asset manager, then uses that reference to sell adjacent advisory services (B Corp certification, net-zero strategy) across the firm's operations.	Securing a publicly disclosed partnership with a major asset owner or manager, similar to the cited work with EdenTree Investment Management [Maanch, 2025].	The product mix is designed for this: the SaaS tracker creates the engagement system of record, while the advisory services address strategic needs, creating multiple revenue lines from a single client relationship [Maanch, 2026].

Compounding for Maanch would likely manifest as a data and credibility flywheel. Each new institutional client adds not only subscription revenue but also proprietary data on engagement patterns and outcomes. This aggregated, anonymized dataset could inform benchmark reports and best practices, making the platform more valuable to subsequent clients seeking industry comparatives. Furthermore, a growing roster of blue-chip asset managers as customers would bolster the platform's credibility, reducing sales friction for future deals. Early signs of this are suggested in the company's impact report, which discusses working with "a range of institutional investors" to align capital, though specific names are not listed [Maanch Impact Report 2022].

The size of the win, should the "Regulatory Standard-Bearer" scenario play out, can be framed by looking at the valuation of public peers in adjacent software categories. For example, Diligent Corporation, a provider of governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) software to enterprises and boards, was acquired for approximately $7 billion in 2021. While not a perfect comparison, it illustrates the enterprise value achievable by a company that becomes essential for corporate governance compliance. If Maanch can capture a similar position within the specific vertical of investment stewardship, a successful outcome could see it reaching a valuation in the hundreds of millions to low billions (scenario, not a forecast). The total addressable market is supported by the global push for sustainable finance, with Bloomberg Intelligence estimating ESG assets surpassing $50 trillion by 2025, all of which will require stewardship oversight.

Data Accuracy: YELLOW -- The core product positioning and seed funding are confirmed by company and publisher sources. Growth scenarios and market size are extrapolated from cited regulatory trends and a single named partnership; specific customer traction beyond EdenTree is not publicly detailed.

Sources

PUBLIC

1. [Maanch, September 2023] Maanch secures funding to help asset managers improve their active ownership efforts and investment decision-making | https://updates.maanch.com/2023/09/maanch-secures-seed-funding/

2. [PWM] PWMnet article mentioning Maanch | https://www.pwmnet.com/content/29e34743-ea56-58b2-b6c9-5eb17971a717

3. [Maanch, 2024] Maanch Engagement Tracker product page | https://maanch.com/

4. [Maanch Invest] Maanch Engagement Tracker | https://maanch-invest.com

5. [UK Companies House] MAANCH LIMITED overview - Find and update company information - GOV.UK | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/11336422

6. [eShe, March 2021] How London Entrepreneur Darshita Gillies Created a Tech Platform to Drive Impact | https://eshe.in/2021/03/09/darshita-gillies/

7. [CB Insights] Maanch - CB Insights | https://www.cbinsights.com/company/maanch

8. [Maanch, 2021] Maanch Engagement Tracker description | https://maanch.com/

9. [Maanch, 2026] Maanch advisory services page | https://maanch.com/

10. [Maanch Impact Report 2022] Maanch Impact Report 2022 | https://maanch.com/files/pdf/Maanch-Impact-Report-2022.pdf

11. [Crunchbase, 2023] Maanch - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/maanch

12. [Financial Times] Avoiding the greenwashers | https://www.ft.com/video/3f967a12-5535-4922-9649-413b5db2773e

13. [S&P Global, 2024] ESG data market sizing via Bloomberg Intelligence | https://www.spglobal.com/

14. [Sifted, 2022] Tumelo funding article | https://sifted.eu/

15. [Tumelo] Tumelo company website | https://tumelo.com/

16. [Maanch, 2025] EdenTree Investment Management partnership case study | https://maanch.com/