Certivo raises $4M seed funding to bring AI-native compliance automation to global supply chains

Compliance rarely makes headlines. It sits in shared drives, buried in supplier emails and spreadsheets, surfacing only when something goes wrong. Certivo believes that the model no longer works.

The New York–based startup has raised $4 million in seed funding led by Suffolk Technologies, with participation from Pioneer Square Ventures and other investors. The capital will fund product development, expand engineering and AI capabilities, and scale go-to-market efforts across manufacturing and construction.

At its core, Certivo is building what it calls an AI-native Compliance System of Record. The idea is straightforward: replace fragmented, manual compliance workflows with a system that runs continuously in the background.

“Compliance complexity grows exponentially as companies scale,” said Kunal Chopra, CEO and Co-Founder of Certivo. “The regulatory wave around PFAS, DPP, CRA, and sustainability isn’t slowing down. It’s accelerating. Enterprises need infrastructure that scales with it. We built Certivo as an AI-native system that makes compliance continuous, proactive, and durable.”

For decades, finance, HR, and supply chain operations have shifted to structured enterprise software. Compliance often remains stitched together from PDFs, spreadsheets, and email threads. That gap is widening as environmental standards tighten, product transparency rules expand, and reporting expectations increase across jurisdictions.

Certivo’s platform deploys an AI agent called CORA that automatically requests and validates supplier documentation, monitors regulatory changes, maps compliance obligations to product portfolios, and integrates into ERP, PLM, and procurement systems. The result is a live compliance record that updates as regulations shift and supplier inputs change.

The built environment offers a clear proving ground. Construction materials sit at the intersection of safety codes, embodied carbon rules, PFAS scrutiny, and local product standards. Manufacturers, contractors, and project owners often manage documentation separately, creating friction and delays when data needs to move across stakeholders.

“As the construction and the broader built world sectors face unprecedented labor shortages, we consistently see compliance as a source of friction amongst the fragmented stakeholder set,” said Wan Li Zhu, Co-founder and Managing Director of Suffolk Technologies. “Certivo’s AI innovations can transform compliance from an operational constraint into a source of durable advantage.”

The pitch lands at a moment when compliance is no longer a back-office task. Market access, product shipment approvals, and public trust can hinge on accurate documentation. Enterprises now manage thousands of supplier relationships across multiple countries. The volume and variability of compliance data can overwhelm teams that rely on manual review cycles.

Certivo argues that AI systems are better suited to tracking regulatory updates, processing unstructured supplier documents, flagging gaps, and adapting in real time. The company pairs automation with human compliance expertise and global partners, aiming to shift companies from reactive reporting cycles to continuous oversight.

The broader thesis is simple. As sustainability standards tighten and regulatory scrutiny increases, compliance becomes an infrastructure issue. Companies that treat it as paperwork risk delays and exposure. Companies that treat it as data gain visibility.

With $4 million in fresh capital, Certivo is betting that compliance will follow the same path as other enterprise functions that moved from spreadsheets to systems of record. If that shift plays out, the category it is trying to define may extend far beyond construction and manufacturing.