Sunhat raises € 9.2 million in Series A

The compliance startup Sunhat has closed a Series A financing round of 9.2 million euros. The round was led by CommerzVentures, with existing investors Capnamic, EnBW New Ventures, xdeck and WEPA Ventures also participating.

Since its foundation in 2022, Sunhat has raised a total of 14.2 million euros in capital. The platform is already used by companies in more than 20 countries. In the next 15 months, Sunhat is aiming to grow tenfold again.

AI platform for immediately available evidence

Sunhat's AI-based compliance platform helps companies to instantly verify ESG data, regulatory information and evidence and make it available to stakeholders such as investors, customers or regulators.

Companies don't have a sustainability problem, they have a verification problem. Those who can provide reliable evidence more quickly will win trust and contracts.

Lukas Vogt, CEO and co-founder of Sunhat

According to the company, employees currently spend an average of 360 hours per year searching for relevant evidence. This is where Sunhat comes in with its Proof AI technology. The platform learns from thousands of audits, ratings and standards, automatically assigns existing information and makes it available in a matter of minutes instead of weeks.

Growth and expansion of the platform

Sunhat is pursuing several goals with the new capital:

• International growth: tapping into the 500 leading companies in Europe and North America.
• Doubling the team: The plan is to increase the number of employees over the next twelve months.
• Proof AI further development: In addition to ESG, over 100 global standards and certifications are to be verified immediately in future.
• Ecosystem development: Sunhat is planning around 20 new integration partnerships with companies and platforms from the ESG, compliance and finance sectors.

Sunhat turns the disadvantage of slow response times into a competitive advantage. Proof AI provides evidence to ensure speed and success.

Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures

Example from practice

Fortune 500 company Ingredion used Sunhat to answer a complex sustainability questionnaire in the shortest possible time."Previously, this timeline would have been almost impossible," says Brian Nash, VP Corporate Sustainability at Ingredion."With Sunhat, we had a verified and confident answer within hours."

With the new financing and the planned expansion, Sunhat aims to consolidate its position as a leading provider of verification and compliance automation. The company sees itself as a key partner in the growing market for governance, risk and compliance solutions, which is expected to reach a volume of over 44 billion US dollars by 2029. An exciting case, but from a founder's point of view, it would be much better if politicians would put the reduction of bureaucracy and simplification in the area of compliance at the top of their to-do list.