Manifest Climate

Manifest Climate is a Toronto-based software company that operates an AI assessment engine for sustainability and climate disclosure analysis. Customers select a set of organizations (portfolio companies, clients, members, suppliers or peers), the documents to be reviewed (sustainability reports, annual reports and filings, TCFD reports, proxy statements, policies and strategy documents), and a methodology — either their own custom criteria or a prebuilt framework such as CSRD/ESRS, ISSB (IFRS S1 & S2), TCFD, GRI, OSFI B-15 or California SB 261. The platform then extracts and assesses each datapoint, returning conformance determinations, verbatim supporting quotes with page-level citations, gap analysis, peer benchmarking and year-over-year trend views, with roll-ups from datapoint to topic to framework and from company to sector to portfolio.

The company also offers off-the-shelf assessment packages, including GHG Emissions Reporting (59 datapoints, 6 subtopics), Physical Climate Risk & Adaptation (39 datapoints, 6 subtopics), Net Zero & Transition Plan (70 datapoints, 5 subtopics), Supply Chain ESG Scorecard (306 datapoints, 9 subtopics) and Investor ESG Due Diligence (179 datapoints, 10 subtopics). Results can be reviewed in Manifest dashboards or connected to external AI assistants such as Claude, ChatGPT and Copilot, carrying the same findings and citations. Earlier product packaging described two modules, Manifest Compliance (AI-powered regulatory gap analysis, automated mapping, disclosure benchmarking) and Manifest Research (source-traceable ESG data on thousands of global publicly traded companies, a searchable disclosure database and an AI-powered ESG analyst).

At launch the platform was positioned as a climate intelligence "SaaS+" product built around alignment with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, including a TCFD Readiness Module that organized a company's climate-related information, identified maturity gaps, benchmarked disclosures against sector leaders and provided educational resources, legal and policy tracking, and curated monthly reports.

Founding story

Zizzo had spent more than a decade advising corporations and financial institutions on climate risk, and demand for those advisory services outgrew what her team could deliver manually across roughly 100 corporate clients. The company was created to do the same consulting-style analysis at scale through software, with co-founder Jeremy Greven, a software developer and entrepreneur who had advised startups through programs including the University of Toronto's Creative Destruction Lab and Ryerson's DMZ.

Business model

Manifest Climate sells a software platform (originally described as "SaaS+") to enterprises and institutions, positioned as a lower-cost, faster alternative to consulting engagements; customers run assessment projects against their chosen entity sets and methodologies, with scope confirmed via a balance of assessment units before a project runs.

Software subscription/project-based platform sales to enterprises and institutions, positioned against the cost of consultants.

Traction

Piloted with more than 15 public companies plus banks and asset managers before the 2021 seed round; by the 2022 Series A the platform was in use by organizations including Scotiabank, Manulife, Teck Resources, BentallGreenOak and Loomis Sayles. The company had about 30 employees at the time of the seed round and planned to grow past 50.

Latest developments

The current product is presented as an AI assessment engine supporting custom methodologies alongside CSRD, ISSB, TCFD, GRI, OSFI B-15 and SB 261, with prebuilt assessment packages, dashboard roll-ups, connectors to external AI assistants, and SOC 2 certification. Jim MacDonald is listed as CEO, with founder Laura Zizzo in a Founder & Strategy role.