FT Alphaville has generally avoided covering anything ESG related. Mainly because it feels like a giant experiment to see if Goodhart’s Law holds across trillion-dollar asset classes. However, this we had to share with you.
Back in November Expensify, a $1.5bn company that helps businesses to manage their expense reporting, IPO’d on the Nasdaq. With the stock down some 55 per cent since, you might think — true to form — we’d now follow up with a snarky comment, particularly after it announced disappointing quarterly numbers on Tuesday.
Tempting, sure. But not this time.
Instead, we’d like to draw your attention to this paragraph regarding its charity — Expensify.org — from its S-1 filing, which seems to have escaped most tech reporters back when the document landed in October (h/t to Twitter account @buccocapital for pointing this out).
We quote (with our emphasis):
We’ve heard of carbon offsetting, but we’re pretty sure this is the first time a company has decided to, in effect, offset its white male exposure. So the question now must be: how long until we see a market develop for credits to help manage work force diversity?
Given how fraught this topic is, we’re going to refrain from further commentary. And please, keep it clean in the comments.
At pixel time, Expensify is down 14 per cent in early trading to $16.06.
