Higg, the sustainability insights platform for the consumer goods industry, has raised 50 million US dollars in a Series B funding round to accelerate supply chain sustainability.

The funding was co-led by technology growth investor Silversmith Capital Partners and Tom Steyer and Katie Hall’s Galvanize Climate Solutions, along with participation from Series A partners Titan Grove and Buckhill Capital.

In a statement, Higg said that the funding would accelerate its delivery of innovative technology solutions and allow it to expand into new consumer goods categories such as outdoor, automotive, toys, and home goods.

Currently, more than 50,000 brands and manufacturers from over 100 countries use the Higg platform for supply chain sustainability goals, including measuring areas like carbon footprint, water use, and energy use, as well as labour impacts.

Higg chief executive, Jason Kibbey, said: “In this new era of expectations, more businesses will be required to have credible impact data about their supply chains. The truth is that measuring owned operations is easy. For consumer products companies, the challenge is obtaining accurate data on the non-owned factories that make the goods—and on the materials and products themselves.

“That’s why we’re thrilled to have Silversmith and Galvanize supporting us. Silversmith brings experience in SaaS innovation that’s needed to scale our technology and Tom Steyer’s effort at Galvanize is the perfect complement given their emphasis in climate solutions. We’re excited to tap into their expertise so that Higg becomes a critical source for ESG information through the value chain and across sectors.”

Higg investment to accelerate expansion into new consumer goods categories

Higg’s Series B comes as companies face growing expectations for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) accountability and disclosure. Regulations are currently being developed in the EU and US for supply chain due diligence, in addition to recent guidelines for product labelling and sustainability claims. In addition, shoppers are also seeking greater product-level transparency about the goods they purchase.

The Higg platform was launched in 2019 and is used to design more sustainable products, expand worker wellbeing, and identify suppliers with reduced impact across emissions, water, chemicals, and waste. Its approach has become the standardised measurement framework for environmental and social performance within the apparel and footwear industry, as it allows brands and their manufacturing partners to exchange data easily.

Higg has also recently begun hosting additional assessments, in partnership with the Apparel Impact Institute (Aii) to offer a new carbon management programme for manufacturing facilities. It has also expanded the capabilities of its platform to include advanced analytics, supplier performance dashboards, and product-level impact disclosures, and now enables integration of its data into external product lifecycle management systems.

Todd MacLean, managing partner at Silversmith Capital Partners, added: “What the Higg team has done in marrying powerful and easy-to-use software with proprietary sustainability data has the opportunity to transform the footprint of entire industries.

“In this case software is not only eating the world, but changing it for the better. We are excited to partner with Jason and his entire team as they continue to scale and ensure consumers have better insights on environmental and social impact when making purchasing decisions.”