The countdown begins as five student teams continue to develop their business plans for the tenth annual Fairfield StartUp Showcase on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts. Team GreenIRR is one of the five teams that will pitch to investors for seed funding, live in front of a live audience. The team of two, comprised of founder Celine King ’23 and Logan MacDougall ’23, have combined their interests in environmental impact and business to develop a first-of-its-kind service for private equity firms to assess the environmental impact of their investments.

“GreenIRR is a SaaS [software as a service] offering that allows private equity managers access to real-time environmental data on their portfolio companies, to ensure climate impact is tracked and goals are met,” said King. “We recognize that it is difficult for investment managers to easily and accurately track their investments against defined benchmarks due to a lack of environmental data on private companies. GreenIRR aims to provide a solution that allows managers to compare their investments to both industry-specific metrics and their own benchmarks.”

The focus on ESG (environmental, social, and corporate governance) in today’s business landscape continues to grow as investors recognize their ethical impact. GreenIRR focuses on the “e” for environment in ESG, and King’s unique academic background in biology and business analytics, combined with MacDougall’s environmental studies major and entrepreneurship minor, have equipped the duo with the necessary skill sets to design a unique offering for investment managers in the private sector.

“I was originally a biology and environmental studies double major on a pre-vet track,” said King. “However, after taking Richard Hyman’s environmental ethics course I was inspired to switch my focus and am now a business analytics major and biology minor. Richard is the one who suggested I pitch for a spot in the Showcase and now he is our team mentor. He is the reason I found my passion for the environment.”

GreenIRR’s proprietary algorithm will use live company activity data feeds to generate portfolio analytics on environmental impact and will utilize gap analysis to compare company performance to managers' benchmarks. King and MacDougall are using unique industry-specific metrics derived from eight leading global climate frameworks to produce powerful performance insights through a scientific lens.

To learn more about GreenIRR’s business plan, and to see four other student teams pitch live in front of a panel of investors for seed funding, register for the tenth annual Fairfield StartUp Showcase on Wednesday, April 27, 2022 at the Quick Center.