Root Takes Home Best Solution Award at ESG Investor’s Nature Data for Institutional Investors Conference

We’re excited to announce that Root has been named the winner of the best solution award at ESG Investor’s Nature Data for Institutional Investors event, held at etc.venues Fenchurch Street.

Our Co-Founder and CEO Frederick Fabian convinced an expert judging panel of asset-owner and asset-manager representatives with a seven-minute live demonstration of Root Stewardship Intelligence—our AI-powered platform that helps stewardship teams tackle nature- and climate-related risks head-on.

What the judges were looking for

The competition challenged four shortlisted innovators—Root, GIST Impact, Neural Alpha and Klere—to show how their technology can:

1. Improve data quality and decision-readiness for institutional investors assessing biodiversity impacts and dependencies.

2. Integrate seamlessly with existing stewardship workflows, from proxy voting to engagement.

3. Drive real-world impact by enabling investors to hold companies accountable on transition plans, remuneration structures and board responsibility.

Root emerged as the clear winner, scoring highest on product functionality, presentation delivery and potential to accelerate nature-positive investing.

Why Stewardship Intelligence struck a chord

During his pitch, Frederick highlighted three differentiators that resonated with both the judges and the audience:

• LLM-powered insight engine – Our proprietary large language model ingests proxy statements, transition-plan disclosures, benchmark datasets and unstructured news to surface the most material nature-related signals for each holding.

• Benchmark alignment at a glance – Interactive dashboards let analysts compare company performance against frameworks such as TNFD, the Global Biodiversity Framework and incoming UK Sustainability Disclosure Requirements.

• Action-ready outputs – Automated briefings translate data into engagement talking points, voting recommendations and director-level accountability checks—saving stewardship teams countless analyst hours.

A word from our CEO

“It was a pleasure to showcase Root Stewardship Intelligence among such a forward-thinking audience,” said Frederick Fabian after receiving the award. “Investors are hungry for decision-ready data. Our goal is to empower stewardship teams to scrutinise portfolio companies on climate and biodiversity with the same rigour they already apply to other governance topics. We’re honoured that the judges recognised the power of our platform to close that data-to-action gap.”

Looking ahead: January 2025 product launch

Building on the momentum of the win, Root will officially release its specialised proxy and climate transition research reports in January 2025. The launch will add:

• Company-specific transition-plan reports aligned with industry leading frameworks.

• Remuneration alignment analysis that flags disconnects between executive pay and climate and nature-positive targets.

• Director accountability profiles ranking board members by stewardship history and influence on sustainability outcomes.

Beta-testing slots with founding clients are now full, but interested asset managers can join the wait-list.

Gratitude to the organisers and community

We extend our thanks to ESG Investor, the event steering committee, and fellow participants for fostering an environment where cutting-edge nature data solutions can shine. The conference agenda—spanning transition minerals, ocean stewardship and biodiversity credits—underscored the urgency and complexity of the challenges we face. We’re proud that Root can play a part in delivering the actionable insights investors need to meet those challenges.