Keeping a balance is an important aspect of almost everything in life. Nature, diet, exercise and life are all best when kept in harmony with the right amount of balance, and the workplace is no different. In fact, it was recently found that having a gender-diverse board of directors can help to protect the environment.
A study revealed that companies with a higher level of gender diversity on their boards experienced significantly fewer environmental lawsuits, suggesting that female directors contribute to reducing corporate environmental litigation. To highlight this, for every female added to a board of directors in the sample, the average lawsuit exposure is reduced by 1.5 percent which equals to an average environmental lawsuit (USD 204 million) resulting in a saving of USD 3.1 million, reports the Economic Times of India.
In addition to this, there is also positive news regarding the expectation of gender diversity reaching new heights this year. A recent article in the Financial Times has stated that this year could mark a turning point for gender diversity in the financial sector as pressure from the #metoo movement and UK gender pay gap reporting galvanize efforts to promote more women.
While this might sound great, there are many companies out there that are not waking up to this realization that balance is important, but instead have been operating with this belief from the very start, with gender diversity deeply entrenched in their core morals.
Beanworks, an accounts payable (AP) automation company is charting a path of leadership in the fintech industry by championing a culture of diversity and inclusion. They are pleased to announce the closing of a $10.1 million Series B funding round.
Beanworks CEO, Catherine Dahl, credits her company’s inclusive culture as a key driving force behind Beanworks’ growth. “We began with two female and two male co-founders in 2012 because we knew strategically companies that focus on gender diversity perform better. Studies repeatedly show that diversity and inclusion increase workplace satisfaction, productivity, retention, and overall revenue. Our approach includes gender representation, diversified recruitment strategies, and bias free HR practices. In addition to being a part of our core values, these initiatives give us a strategic advantage over companies that do little more than pay lip service to this vital concept.”
As evidence for this strategy, the company recently closed a CAD $10.1 million (USD $7.7 M) Series B funding round led by FINTOP Capital, alongside BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund which only invests in best-in-class, women-led technology companies. The round was further supported by existing and new private investors.
In line with the company’s focus on gender diversity, Beanworks is also pleased to welcome Michelle Scarborough, Managing Director, Strategic Investments and Women in Technology Venture Fund at BDC Capital, and Joe Maxwell, Managing Partner of FINTOP, to its Board of Directors. Maxwell brings a partnership that will accelerate the company’s momentum and Scarborough brings expertise in scaling global businesses and diversity.
“Beanworks solves the age-old problem of throwing people up against technology roadblocks,” said Maxwell. “People don’t want to manually enter invoice data or be bound to labor-intensive, manual processes when they know there is a better way. We believe the team at Beanworks is positioned to meet a growing demand for scaling companies and I am excited to be join the Board.”
The $10.1 million in funding comes a year after Beanworks began a partnership with Sage Software as its exclusive AP automation provider. With AP automation ranked as the top user-requested add-on by Sage’s user base, the launch of Sage AP Automation (a white labelled version of Beanworks) has gained rapid traction amongst Sage users by providing robust accounting workflows, automating data entry and giving newfound visibility into their businesses’ financials.
Mid-market accounting teams choose Beanworks as their essential accounting tool to access the analytics and insights that empower them to make educated, strategic business decisions. Beanworks will use the recent investment to further enhance its platform, release an expense module and expand into new global markets.
