From estimates to evidence: how Invest-NL scaled its ESG data collection

‍The Challenge

For years, Invest-NL collected ESG and impact data the way most investors do: Excel templates sent by email, coordinated across an internal team of investment managers, to roughly 50 portfolio companies and 25 fund managers.

The two-month collection window looked generous on paper. In practice, most responses came in the final two weeks, triggering a scramble of follow-ups, corrections, and manual consolidation into one large file. "The consolidation of the files was a very big pain point," says Andrea van Dijk, Head of Impact & ESG at Invest-NL. "The chance of human error in copying and consolidating files was rather big."

As Invest-NL's portfolio grew, the problem compounded. A process that works for a handful of investments doesn't survive across 75. "I concluded this way of working is not scalable," Andrea recalls. "We need something different."

What They Were Looking For

When Invest-NL went to market, they had a specific list: structured data collection with a clear audit trail, company-specific KPIs beyond standard SFDR templates, and a tool that could integrate with their impact calculation layer without manual data transfer in between. They also needed adoption. Several fund managers, like Rubio and Extantia, in their portfolio were already using Apiday. That mattered.

What Changed

The first difference was visible from day one. Replacing the old approach of investment managers emailing templates individually, Apiday ran a joint kickoff webinar with Invest-NL's portfolio. "We could already see a lot of engagement at that stage," says Andrea. That was a marked change from the spreadsheet era. The review module replaced fragmented email chains with a single traceable thread per data point.

That engagement showed up where it mattered most: with fund managers. Companies in the direct portfolio had always reported reliably; fund managers were the gap. After the switch, fund managers who previously hadn't submitted data — or had sent only partial figures — came through. That's what drove estimates down sharply:

• Carbon data: estimated figures went from 28% to 14%, halved in one cycle
• R&D and FTE data: estimated figures went from 40% to 5%, nearly eliminated

From Collection to Quantified Impact

Invest-NL pairs Apiday with Impatec, the impact-valuation tool from Impact Institute. Apiday powers the data collection layer; Impatec converts that data into the monetary value of Invest-NL's impact, in euros, with the full methodology visible rather than a black box.

The two run as one connected system. Data collected in Apiday flows automatically into Impatec's engine, and the resulting figures are aggregated back inside Apiday: no exports, no reconciliation, no manual re-keying. The full chain, from collection to quantified and aggregated impact, is traceable and audit-ready.

"There was no manual step, no human error involved," Andrea explains. "The data points would automatically end up in the impact calculation tool."

Apiday's API connects with any tool that needs portfolio data — whether for reporting, analysis, or compliance. Collect once, use everywhere.

Scaling Accountability

For Invest-NL, this isn't just an operational improvement. It's about being able to stand behind their numbers publicly.

"We are a state-owned investor, so we invest public money. It's really important that we can explain the societal benefit of our investments and be accountable for the numbers we represent. We were also making impactful investment decisions when still playing with Excel spreadsheets, but now we can do this at scale and in a more professional way."
Andrea van Dijk, Head of Impact & ESG, Invest-NL

What Andrea Would Tell a Peer

"The success team at Apiday really walked us through the implementation, it felt like we were genuinely supported throughout the process. And being able to collect company-specific impact KPIs - not just standard SFDR templates - has been really helpful for our impact calculations and reporting."