ImpactableX
ImpactableX was founded by Catherine Griffin in 2019.
She is a Tory Burch Fellow.
Her team develops innovative data models and frameworks that help climate tech companies quantify and communicate their environmental and economic impact potential. Catherine uses her background in political science, environmental studies, and social entrepreneurship to bridge the gap between impact measurement and capital mobilization. She previously served as Managing Director at GoodCompany Ventures, where she built award-winning programs in partnership with the Obama Administration's Climate Data Initiative, Bloomberg Philanthropies, and the Wharton Social Impact Initiative. Her work has helped companies raise over $75 million in early-stage capital and demonstrate meaningful contributions to emerging markets. She brings experience in impact investing, academic research, and social innovation to her role as CEO of ImpactableX, having also served as a Research Scholar at the United Nations.
ImpactableX is showing that data-driven design can lead to smarter investments, better innovations, and, ultimately, a more sustainable future.
ImpactableX, founded by Catherine Griffin, is transforming the way climate tech companies measure their social and environmental impact with a data-driven platform designed for both investors and entrepreneurs. The company focuses on making impact reliably visible, offering a robust framework to quantify the return on investment (ROI) of climate solutions. This helps ensure we identify which innovations should be prioritized, and at what level, to make immediate progress in addressing climate change.
When it comes to the future of our planet, innovators are hard at work developing solutions to combat the effects of climate change. But with so many companies striving to make a difference, how do we truly measure their impact? This is where Catharine Griffin, founder and CEO of ImpactableX, comes in. ImpactableX is revolutionizing how we quantify and compare the effectiveness of climate tech innovations by bringing much-needed visibility to the data that can help us figure out what really works.
For founders, having clear data not only boosts their chances of success but also enhances their credibility with investors, many of whom are eager to back solutions that can prove their worth financially and in terms of the impact they generate. Catherine emphasizes the importance of clean design: “Our job is really to make this as lightweight, as accessible, and as valuable as possible for all the different players involved, so that this becomes something that everybody must do,” she explains. And in today’s world, where everyone needs clarity on the true impact of their work, ImpactableX is offering just that.
Like many great founders, Catherine started the company to solve her own problem. Before founding ImpactableX, she spent a decade leading a fund and accelerator program. It was during this time that she noticed a crucial gap in the market. Founders, often motivated by the desire to create positive change, were struggling to articulate the true impact of their innovations to stakeholders, especially investors. Investors, on the other hand, had no real way to quantify or compare the environmental or social ROI of these innovations. Catharine and her team began developing a framework to help. What started as a back-of-the-napkin solution quickly snowballed when the tool helped founders close funding rounds. Investors started asking for similar insights across their portfolios. It became clear: ImpactableX had to grow into a full-fledged business.
What makes ImpactableX different from other platforms? It’s more than just a data collection tool. Griffin explains that the platform offers “impact modeling,” allowing founders to test different market strategies or features and understand how their decisions affect outcomes. For example, a company can analyze whether rolling out a product in the U.S. versus South Africa would generate greater impact. This level of granularity is critical, especially when trying to navigate complex issues like climate change, where one innovation can have both direct and indirect outcomes.
ImpactableX doesn’t just focus on the investor side, as many other platforms do. Instead, it positions itself as the only platform designed for both founders and investors. Catherine emphasizes the “symbiotic relationship” between these two groups, acknowledging that while investors need data to make smarter investment decisions, founders need tools to optimize their business strategies and maximize their impact. “We're really founder-focused,” Catharine says, “but we are the only platform that is designed for both. Because the truth is, founders and investors are all in a symbiotic relationship.”
One of the most fascinating aspects of ImpactableX is how it translates impact into economic value. Not only does the platform track cost savings, but it also identifies the creation of new value—turning what might have been abstract environmental benefits into hard data that decision-makers can use. This is particularly valuable when a founder can approach potential customers with real numbers about how their innovation can save costs for taxpayers or third parties.
The success of ImpactableX doesn’t just rest on the depth of its analytics. It’s also built on providing a simple, seamless user experience. The platform’s design is centered around making complex data accessible and actionable.. That’s a design challenge.
“How can we take something that’s complex and make it look and feel as simple as possible?” Griffin asks. By focusing on usability, ImpactableX ensures that users can easily access and interpret data without getting bogged down by too much or irrelevant data. That’s a crucial advantage in an industry where founders need to make quick, data-driven decisions to stay competitive.
Catharine has her eyes on the future, particularly 2030—a critical milestone year for achieving the United Nations' 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In her vision, ImpactableX will play a central role in coordinating global efforts to reach these goals by offering a cockpit of intelligence that tracks collective progress. This “central source of intelligence” would allow stakeholders to identify which innovations should be prioritized, and at what level, to meet these ambitious targets.
“We hope that when 2030 comes, we’ll have this central source of intelligence where we can track our collective progress or lack thereof,” Catharine explains. “We can understand exactly which innovations we should invest in to reach those goals.”
Climate tech is full of big ideas, but execution and measurable impact are what ultimately matter. ImpactableX was designed to solve a key problem: founders often struggle to quantify their social or environmental contributions, which can make it difficult to secure funding from impact-driven investors. But there’s more to be done.
For Investors: Reach out to Catherine and other impact analytics experts to refine your decision-making at https://www.impactablex.com/
For Founders: Use platforms like ImpactableX to articulate your impact more effectively and scale your solutions faster. To elevate your own brand or product design, reach out to shiftmakers@allelodesign.com.
For General Supporters: Stay informed, advocate for more data-backed innovations, and support companies that prioritize social and environmental impact.