We have all experienced in one way or another the implications of climate change, be it intense weather storms like that of Hurricane Ian, or the blisteringly hot summer that is finally coming to an end. As the world becomes more unstable, going green is no longer a choice, but rather a necessity, and businesses must follow suit. This isn't just to help the environment but to ensure long-term business resilience.

Though businesses know that a successful long-term corporate strategy must focus on sustainability to attain resilience against environmental and social changes and mitigate any negative impacts, many are at a loss of how to do so; embedding ESG (environment, social, governance) factors into core strategies is not as easy as it sounds. The problem lies in the overwhelming amount of data yet a lack of technology, which makes it extremely difficult for organizations to make data-driven decisions. Moreover, there are many knowledge gaps within the sector, so corporations have to rely on consultants for expertise. This is why Continue AI came to be. In a conversation with Geektime, CEO and co-founder Beeri Amiel said “[Continue AI] was born out of the need for organizations to strengthen their in-house sustainability expertise in order to actively transform the way they operate.” He continued, saying, “We realized there was a massive knowledge gap for corporate sustainability programs in leveraging data. We spoke to numerous sustainability leaders across the US, Europe, and Israel, and found out that everyone was having similar challenges because of the vast amount of data that needed to be analyzed across hundreds of indicators that make up corporate sustainability programs.”

The sustainability intelligence platform

Continue AI enables enterprise leaders to achieve their business goals while improving their sustainability performance using proprietary artificial intelligence. By synthesizing and analyzing millions of data points, Continue AI is building the largest sustainability database in the world. It will be able to help the world’s leading companies reach their sustainability goals by providing concrete insights for real action plans for users to implement across their organization. Alas, companies will be able to achieve sustainability goals and adhere to ESG compliance requirements. This will enable them to continuously stay ahead of stakeholder expectations while navigating the ESG cycle from start to finish. Amiel continued, “Through our platform, we’re able to harness the power of data to provide a new layer of sustainability intelligence business leaders never had before to mobilize companies into sustainable action and create incredibly meaningful change.”

Helping those big and small

Continue AI’s main focus is on enterprises, but there is no reason that smaller companies can’t use the platform to build their sustainability program to save resources and time. Regardless, their intelligence platform will “...Enable companies to manage sustainability in-house and reduce their reliance on external consultants. We believe that bringing sustainability knowledge and skills in-house is key to successful integration between business and sustainability,” Amiel added.

As there are many different factors and indicators to consider in the realm of sustainability. Which does your platform use and how was that decided?

“Our AI intelligence platform analyzes millions of data points to determine which indicators are most important for each company to focus on based on importance to their industry, stakeholders, and peers, which is one of the biggest pain points for companies. This enables our clients to be much more data-driven in their decision-making when they build their sustainability programs. We help companies assess their performance across hundreds of indicators – anywhere from where they stand across GHG emissions and diversity metrics, to how their supplier code of conduct and ethics policies stack up against expectations and best practices.”

Today, Continue AI launched out of stealth with a $5.7 million seed investment. The round was led by Grove Ventures and Maple Capital, with participation from Ride Ventures, Liquid 2, and Kindergarten Ventures. With the capital raised, the company will accelerate their R&D and go-to-market efforts, paving the way for them to become the leading sustainability intelligence platform that helps business leaders drive resilience, profitability, and impact, for a more sustainable future.

We know this hasn't been an easy time for startups to raise funds given the turbulent market. Did you find it to be difficult to do so?

“Thankfully, for us, the process went smoothly. We were very fortunate to build very close relationships with Grove Ventures and Maple Capital, and they've been with us hand-in-hand even before we started to fundraise, all the way back to our ideation phase. This allowed all parties involved to be very comfortable with one another which helped our fundraising round be a more efficient process.”

He concluded by saying that what makes Continue AI stand out from its competitors is that “Most companies today either focus on providing intelligence to investors or enabling corporations to collect internal data more efficiently. We combine both external intelligence with internal data as we believe this is the only way for companies to make informed decisions about sustainability – especially given how much of their sustainability impact sits outside of the company's walls.”

Continue AI was founded by Beeri Amiel (CEO), Alon Arad (CPO), and Yonatan Maor (CTO) in early 2022. They are located in Tel Aviv with 10 employees.