Introducing Actual: The World’s First SimCity-Like Platform Built to Ensure Fortune 1000 Companies Make Good on Climate, Sustainability and Social Impact Pledges

A seasoned team of software engineers, game designers, and clean transportation and supply chain experts today reveal the future of environmental, social and governance (ESG) execution, Actual: the first ESG Transformation Platform designed to help companies embed sustainability into their business models, and meet net-zero and corporate pledges. Hailing from Linkedin, Airbus, and NetSuite, the team has created a SimCity-like ESG planning simulation that offers detailed modeling, interactive visualizations, regulatory compliance and real-world emissions reduction.

Actual launches with $5M in seed funding from Buckley Ventures, Hyper, Wndrco, Sequoia Scout, Signalfire Scout, Craft Scout, and Global Founders Capital. In addition to working with companies and groups such as Giga, 2000W Smart Cities, and GAV, Actual most recently engaged in a joint partnership with regenerative wool fiber platform ZQRX to build ESG solutions with sustainability leaders such as Allbirds and VF Corporation. 

“We are at a point where companies must make good on their ESG pledges or risk falling behind,” said Actual co-founder and President Karthik Balakrishnan. “Investors are already favoring companies with higher ESG scores, leaving ‘less clean’ companies with significantly less access to capital. Actual helps enterprises from industries as diverse as energy, fashion, telecom and transportation rapidly model their options and take action to transform, meeting regulations and pledges without delay.”

Global brands are encouraged to sign-up for a demo here: hello@actualhq.com . 

A real-world plan that turns pledges into reality

Amid mounting pressure to meet net-zero emissions and create sustainable and inclusive growth, companies have been quick to pronounce commitments and pledges. But most are limited to carbon accounting and reporting, without a plan to actually execute solutions. Actual goes beyond sustainability disclosure to create a living, evolving ESG strategy that can be updated in real-time to assess risk, identify carbon hot spots, and enable collaboration with experts across the supply chain to accelerate the path to net-zero.

“Our partnership with Actual accelerates ZQRX’s ability to help our community of world-leading brands meet their net-zero and Scope 3 sustainability targets,” says John Brakenridge, CEO ZQRX. “Actual’s technology will enable the experts at the more than 20 brands that have committed to the ZQRX platform, including our foundational partners Allbirds, icebreaker, and Smartwool, to scale transformation on-farm and through the supply chain in ways that the entire ecosystem of stakeholders - from growers to brand leaders to consumers - can come together for the betterment of our planet.”

Actual is co-founded by three-time founder and ex-CEO of Heighten (acquired by Microsoft/LinkedIn), Rajesh Chandran, former co-founder of Coin (acquired by Fitbit) and Altiscope (now known as Airbus UTM) Karthik Balakrishnan, Ph.D., and former LinkedIn software engineer and Rhodes Scholar, Derek Lyons, Ph.D.The team’s combined background brings extensive experience in modeling and simulation, game design, machine learning, and data analytics to apply game-like mechanics to ESG planning to achieve environmental goals, not just collect data.

Actual’s platform serves corporations, governments, and change-making organizations, empowering them to plan actionable sustainability initiatives through data, simulation, and intuition. To learn more about working with Actual to meet your ESG transformation goals, visit actualhq.com.

About Actual

Founded in 2018 by a team of software engineers, game designers, and clean transportation and supply chain experts, Actual is a first-of-its-kind ESG transformation platform designed to help companies embed sustainability into their business models and meet net-zero and corporate pledges. With minimal data, Actual delivers a living ESG strategy that is always up to date, in compliance with evolving ESG standards, and available for stakeholder inspection. Actual is backed by Buckley Ventures, Hyper, Social Impact Capital, Wndrco, Sequoia Scout, Signalfire Scout, Craft Scout and Global Founders Capital. For more information, visit actualhq.com.

About ZQRX

The New Zealand Merino Company’s regenerative fiber platform ZQRX takes a big picture view of the global challenges we all face and contributes to solving them by accelerating collective, regenerative-driven actions that go beyond sustainability. It requires a collaborative approach from our ZQRX Wool Growers, ZQRX Brands, and the forward-thinking consumers who choose ZQRX products. 

ZQRX Wool Growers not only produce the highest quality, most ethical wool in the world, they also work to give more than they take from the natural world, the animals living in that world, and the human communities interacting with it. ZQ Growers use a new state-of-the-art platform called the Regenerative Index (RX) to help them measure and improve how much they give back as they restore waterways, protect native species, offset carbon, and enhance local communities. ZQRX provides each grower with user-friendly modeling, real-time metrics and machine learning, and guides them through the latest solutions, strategies, and techniques to help them continuously measure, improve and deliver on their ESG goals. For more information, visit www.discoverzq.com or @discoverzq.

Contact Information

Natalie Bartels

Media Contact

VSC on behalf of Actual

actual@vsc.co