Certa, a platform specializing in compliance, governance, and risk management for enterprises, has announced the successful completion of a Series B funding round, raising $35 million. The round was co-led by Fin Capital and Vertex Ventures, with participation from Tru Arrow Partners, Point72 Ventures, BDMI, Mantis VC (backed by The Chainsmokers), and GOAT Capital.
With this latest funding round, Certa has amassed a total capital pool of “just over” $50 million, according to CEO and founder Jag Lamba. Lamba refrained from disclosing the exact valuation but mentioned that it aligns with the typical valuation for a Series B round of this magnitude.
Certa aims to address the challenges that arise when businesses engage with third parties, which introduce new risks spanning data privacy, financial stability, climate impact, environmental considerations, and regulatory compliance. The company’s vision is to simplify global collaboration with third-party entities.
Jag Lamba, a Wharton alumnus with a decade of experience at McKinsey, was inspired to establish Certa after encountering difficulties when procurement teams engaged with unvetted third parties.
“As organizations expand their global footprints, they’re exposed to diverse compliance requirements and increased security risks,” Lamba explained. “With disparate systems, data silos can become a major challenge.”
This problem is widespread, with MetricStream reporting that 48% of organizations struggle to track third-party compliance, and 58% of compliance teams find it challenging to assess vendor responsiveness in third-party risk management.
Certa offers a solution in the form of an orchestration engine that brings stakeholders involved in risk-exposed business processes onto its platform. Certa provides a space for all third parties, including vendors, partners, and clients, to share data and internalize a company’s compliance and risk policies. It offers risk scoring reports, templates, modules, third-party validations, questionnaires for risk analysis, and integrations that enable users to generate risk management reports for larger organizations.
Recently, Certa introduced an environmental, social, and governance (ESG) suite to assist organizations in meeting supply chain-related ESG requirements. Additionally, it offers a no-code “studio” that enables users to customize risk-exposed business processes through a user-friendly drag-and-drop interface.
Lamba emphasized the automation capabilities of Certa, which significantly reduce manual tasks, resulting in cost savings and faster time-to-market. The platform gathers, centralizes, and standardizes data from various sources, preventing risks from falling through the cracks.
Certa faces competition from several players in the compliance and risk management space, including Hyperproof, which recently secured $40 million in funding, Cypago, focused on automating compliance and governance with a $13 million investment, and Kompliant, which concentrates on financial compliance and raised $14 million.
Despite the competition, Lamba believes there is substantial market potential, a perspective supported by Research and Markets’ estimate that the global enterprise risk management market will reach $6.38 billion by 2027.
Certa currently employs approximately 200 individuals and boasts a user base of 170,000.
Lamba concluded by stating, “Certa’s strategic approach positions us strongly to navigate potential headwinds… This latest funding round will provide us with several years to accelerate the business, although we cannot disclose our burn rate.”
