Funding to Accelerate Development of AI-Powered Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC) Intelligence Layer

Trustero, a Silicon Valley innovator in AI-powered Security and Compliance, announced today the close of a $10.35 million Series A funding round led by Bright Pixel Capital (formerly Sonae IM), with participation from existing investors Engineering Capital, Zetta Ventures Partners, and Vertex Ventures US. Trustero is proving that AI can drive real revenue and operational breakthroughs in GRC, a space traditionally dominated by complex, high-cost, and manual processes.

“With Trustero, organizations no longer need to be weighed down by compliance. We offer human-quality, actionable GRC intelligence in seconds, without the high fees,” said Phillip Liu, CEO of Trustero. “The Trust Graph is our secret weapon, allowing us to ingest diverse data sources from GRC platforms, cloud providers, and more, delivering insights instantly.”

Trustero’s founder and CEO, Phillip Liu, is a visionary tech entrepreneur with a proven track record. Formerly, he founded SignalFx, a leader in cloud monitoring solutions, which was acquired by Splunk for over $1 billion. His early experience at Facebook and Opsware further distinguished him as a trusted name in Silicon Valley. Now, he turns his focus to Compliance and Security, seeing a new opportunity to revolutionize the field with AI, bringing agile, cost-effective solutions to an industry struggling with resource-intensive and manual workflows.

Since its founding in 2020, Trustero has grown significantly by helping organizations reduce compliance costs and the time commitments of their senior executives. Companies with complex compliance demands like Chassi, an AI-powered analytics platform, have experienced the most substantial time and cost savings. They added Trustero AI to their ISO 27001 compliance program in 2024. "For our organization, the time savings were substantial—approximately 10-to-1 overall, and for my role, the efficiency gains approached 100-to-1," stated Justin Dooley, CFO of Chassi. "Additionally, we reduced internal audit costs by 75% due to the comprehensive data preparation capabilities."

The new capital will be instrumental in driving Trustero’s development of more powerful and accurate AI for security and compliance, scaling operations, expanding market reach, and adding top-tier talent from AI engineering and GRC. Trustero has already made one executive hire since raising their Series A, bringing in George Totev as Chief Information Security Officer. He’s tasked with enhancing the company’s security capabilities and driving innovation in AI-driven GRC solutions.

George comes from Snowflake, where he led the Customer Trust team, managing 30+ certifications and customer security compliance. Previously, he built Atlassian’s Risk & Compliance function and held key roles at Visa, Goldman Sachs, Symantec, and The World Bank.

Trustero’s technology is backed by its patented Trust Graph, which delivers unprecedented speed, accuracy, and cost savings in GRC intelligence. The Trust Graph is the core engine that enables Trustero to answer complex security questions in seconds, perform gap analyses across frameworks like FedRAMP and ISO 27001, and provide powerful audits, evidence mapping, and remediation guidance. This innovation differentiates Trustero from traditional GRC programs that rely on high-cost external consultants or limited manual processes.

“Companies are overwhelmed by the growing compliance demands driven either by evolving regulations or increasing customer compliance requirements. With Trustero, compliance and security teams go beyond simple compliance automation, by having a human-like AI-advisor that interprets not only the controls but also the evidence, in a manner comparable to how a human would,” explains Daniela Coutinho, Manager at Bright Pixel Capital.

Fernando Martins, Director at Bright Pixel Capital, added, “We are excited to support such a strong team, led by an experienced and technical leader, as they enter their next growth phase.”

About Bright Pixel Capital: Bright Pixel Capital, formerly known as Sonae IM, is the technology investment arm of the multinational group Sonae. With special focus on cybersecurity, infrastructure software, retail technologies, business applications and emerging tech, it has a portfolio of more than 60 companies, from early to growth stages. Bright Pixel Capital acts as a partner that brings specialized know-how, global footprint, and a wealth of experience in helping companies from early stage to IPO. Find out more at brpx.com.

About Trustero: Trustero’s AI automates governance, risk, and compliance functions such as compliance audits, security questionnaires, tailored remediation guidance, and third-party risk evaluations. Founded in 2020 by Phillip Liu, Trustero is the first to bring generative AI into the GRC space, enabling organizations to achieve and maintain compliance with unmatched speed, efficiency, and accuracy. For more information, visit Trustero.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20241121183096/en/