Creating Bespoke Sustainability Data for Each Stakeholder: An Interview with Anastasia Kuskova, Co-Founder & CEO at Sirius

As part of Beaumont Bailey’s mission to connect founders, innovators and key players at the forefront of the evolving climate technology and sustainability market, we are featuring the successes, challenges and stories of leaders in the space who are driving change. In this instalment we speak with Anastasia Kuskova, Co-Founder & CEO at Sirius.

Can you tell us about your career path and what inspired you to found Sirius?

My entire life has been in metals and mining. I recently learned that my grandfather was Head of Quality Assurance at a large steel producer, which is quite similar to sustainability – it was like the beginning of sustainability in a way. So, I guess it’s in my blood.

I started my career in consulting in Switzerland, focusing on commodities, and then quickly moved into the industry. My last role was as Chief Sustainability Officer for Eurasian Resources Group, a large metals and mining producer (copper, coal, aluminium, ferroalloys) with a revenue of approximately $10 billion. I also built a corporate startup, ReSource, focusing on traceability of metals for mine-to-EV battery supply chains, backed by Glencore, Trafigura, and used by Tesla.

I tried for a long time to solve sustainability issues within the industry using technology. I was also Deputy Governor at the World Economic Forum’s metals and mining platform, working on carbon traceability and net-zero commodities. However, I realised that the best way to drive innovation in this slow-moving industry was not from within, but from the outside.

Sirius was born out of personal frustration. I am deeply connected to our ideal customers – Heads of Sustainability, compliance, and leaders in sustainability teams – because I was one of them. This intimate knowledge of their challenges helped shape our solution.

For those who don’t know Sirius, please could you provide an overview of the business and your role within the organisation?

There are two schools of thought in sustainability data. One believes that a universal standard will emerge, reducing the burden on sustainability teams in reporting and responding to data requests. However, based on what we see with CSRD and ISSB, standardisation is far from being achieved.

The second school of thought, which we follow, recognises that sustainability data is highly contextual – 80% of it is narrative-driven. You cannot simply apply an accounting framework and assume it will work. Sustainability data needs to be communicated in ways that are relevant to different stakeholders, each of whom has unique priorities, strategies, and regulatory requirements.

Sirius is built to address this challenge. We act as a universal adapter for sustainability data, transforming it into formats tailored to specific stakeholder needs, whether those are OEMs in the US, banks in France, or customers in China.

Our core technology builds a Sustainability Twin – a knowledge graph that maps a company’s sustainability data. This twin then takes stakeholder requests and reformats the data accordingly, ensuring compliance while delivering insights into stakeholder expectations. This allows sustainability teams to align more closely with company strategy and revenue objectives, making them indispensable.

Could you provide more detail into the product and the key problems you are solving for your clients?

The first and most widely used module in Sirius is the questionnaire module.

Sustainability teams are overwhelmed with data requests from customers, suppliers, banks, insurers, shareholders, and regulators. They spend most of their time answering the same or similar questions repeatedly.

Sirius profiles these questionnaires, saves 60-70% of the time spent responding, and helps teams identify gaps in their reporting. It also provides insights into what different stakeholders prioritise. This module has seen strong adoption and is growing rapidly in usage.

How do you foresee the role of technology and AI evolving in your sector, and how is Sirius leveraging technology and AI to address sustainability challenges?

AI is changing everything, everywhere, all at once.

There is often a fear that AI will replace people, but the reality is that people will be replaced by those who know how to use AI effectively. AI will soon be embedded in nearly all workflows, and companies that do not leverage it will fall behind.

For AI to be useful, it must be niche, workflow-embedded, and domain-specific, not generic. This is why Sirius focuses on building AI intelligence for sustainability teams, tailoring our technology to their specific needs.

Sustainability data is an area with high-quality structured data and a wealth of narrative context, making it a natural fit for AI applications. Our goal is to provide sustainability professionals with AI-powered tools that make them more effective and strategic in their roles.

Which sectors does Sirius operate in, and what are the key challenges you see in these sectors regarding sustainability?

We focus on the metals and mining value chain – including mining, processing, and trading companies. We have recently expanded into energy, chemicals, and heavy manufacturing, where we see strong potential.

We deliberately avoid industries like food, fashion, and retail because sustainability in these sectors follows completely different dynamics.

Our approach is to build niche, industry-specific AI models that incorporate the methodologies and frameworks relevant to these sectors. Generic AI solutions cannot achieve the same level of precision.

The biggest sustainability challenge in these sectors is the context-driven nature of the data. Unlike financial data, sustainability information is not easily standardised. Understanding the narrative and context behind data points is essential for effective decision-making.

What are the key opportunities for Sirius and how do you envisage positioning the business to realise these?

The biggest opportunity is solving the fundamental inefficiencies in sustainability data management.

Sustainability teams are overwhelmed with data requests, under-resourced, and operating on limited budgets. The opportunity lies in addressing their biggest pain points:

1. Automating stakeholder data requests (our questionnaire module is already solving this).
2. Providing strategic insights – helping teams understand stakeholder expectations, benchmark performance, and align with revenue-generation activities.
3. Becoming the go-to platform for sustainability teams, where they spend 90% of their time managing sustainability data.

We start by solving today’s most pressing issue: data requests. Once that is streamlined, we expand into providing deeper analytics and intelligence.

What are your growth plans over the next year?

We aim to grow 3-4x this year.

Our primary focus remains on metals, mining, and trading, but we are expanding into building materials and energy.

What has been your approach to building a company culture at Sirius, especially as it relates to attracting talent with expertise in sustainability and technology?

Building a strong culture is one of the hardest aspects of running a startup, particularly in AI.

To attract top AI talent, you need to:

• Solve complex, interesting problems.
• Offer an exciting, mission-driven environment.
• Create a culture that balances hard work with enjoyment – startups involve suffering, but they must also be rewarding.

Our culture is authentic – we never sat down and defined values; they naturally emerged from how we work and communicate. Having fun is an important part of it.

We also prioritise hiring exceptional people, vetting rigorously, and quickly parting ways if someone isn’t the right fit. Every hire in a 20-person company has a massive impact, so there is no room for compromise on quality.

What do you find most challenging about the talent market right now specific to your sector?

Several factors make hiring difficult:

1. AI talent shortage – Everyone wants experienced AI professionals but demand far exceeds supply. Startups must be highly flexible and creative in attracting top talent.
2. Immigration & hiring barriers – We’ve noticed that most of our hires are immigrants. However, tightening immigration laws in Europe are making it harder to hire globally. This is a huge loss for Europe’s competitiveness.
3. Overregulation in Europe – European hiring laws are making it harder for startups to scale. The US has extreme flexibility (which we do not advocate), but Europe’s excessive regulation is stifling innovation.

Startups need a level of flexibility to compete globally while still maintaining fair and ethical employment practices. Right now, the system is too rigid and anti-competitive, making it difficult to build truly global, innovative businesses in Europe.

If you would like to discuss any of the topics raised in this piece or if you need support with your leadership resourcing strategy, please get in touch with Tom Allport on: tom.allport@beaumontbailey.com.