Sydney-founded enterprise compliance startup Haast has raised US$12 million (A$17m) in a Series A.
The round was led by Peak XV Partners, supported by DST Global Partners, and existing backers Airtree, Aura Ventures, and Black Sheep Capital. Haast, which relocated to New York, with the US becoming its primary market, has now raised US$17.05m in total, including a A$6 million Seed round in May last year and in 2023, $1.2 million in a pre-Seed.
The new funds will be used to scale Haast’s agentic flows, accelerate product development, and expand its global enterprise footprint.
The startup was founded in Sydney in May 2023 by Kunal Vankadara, Jason Watling and Liam King.
Compliance for AI marketing
Vankadara, the CEO, said the opportunity for the business is that legal and compliance teams can’t keep pace with content production for marketing and other purposes in the AI era, still relying on manual review processes that create operational bottlenecks.
“Enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between moving fast and staying compliant, and that tradeoff is exactly what manual review processes currently force on teams,” he said.
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“We built Haast to transform compliance from a generic assistive checkpoint into an intelligent, automated engine embedded directly within global enterprises. By embedding policy and risk standards directly into the fabric of every workflow, we empower teams to move at AI speed with confidence, unlocking real efficiency and output gains without ever compromising governance.”
Vankadara said Haast has achieved significant traction among Fortune 500 customers and revenue has grown 4.5x in 12 months and zero customer churn.
Peak XV Partners MD Rohit Agarwal said that in a world where every screen and ad is personalised, manual review is impossible.
“Haast is solving a multi-billion dollar bottleneck by turning compliance into an automated enabler,” he said.
“They are helping the world’s leading brands unlock the full potential of GenAI without the looming threat of regulatory friction or brand damage. We are excited to partner with Haast as they reinvent AI-native compliance.”
