PayPal and JP Morgan invest in Laika to automate compliance efforts
Companies are increasingly reliant upon independent audits and assessments of software providers’ compliance controls. This has been a cumbersome, manual and lengthy process that results in missed deals and lost revenue.
Laika, a compliance-as-a-service platform, has raised $35 million to develop additional automation, integrate audit experiences into the platform, build out its team, and extend the company’s growth and momentum in the market.
The Series B funding was led by J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners with participation from PayPal Ventures and all existing investors including Bain Capital Ventures, Canapi, Dashfund, Nyca and ThirdPrime.
Eva Pittas, founder and Chief Operations Officer, Laika, said: “Meeting compliance requirements for regulators or enterprise customers can be a huge obstacle for startups with innovative products but small teams. By transforming compliance into a frictionless, subscription-based digital experience, Laika transforms compliance from a sales obstacle into a growth lever for front-line sales and business development teams.”
Christopher Dawe, Managing Partner and Head of Growth Equity Partners at J.P. Morgan Private Capital, commented: “Laika’s unified compliance-as-a-service platform is well positioned to take advantage of demand for compliance services and help bring transparency and automation to its customers.
“As a firm that works with thousands of vendors, J.P. Morgan has a deep appreciation for the complexities of the compliance function and we saw a huge opportunity for Laika to address the pain points in the industry. We are pleased to have led their Series B funding round and will bring the resources of the firm to help the business scale.”
The J.P. Morgan Private Capital executive Christopher Dawe will be joining Laika’s Board of Directors. He joined the firm in June 2021 to lead the newly-established Growth Equity Partners.
Patrick McGoldrick, Partner at J.P. Morgan Growth Equity Partners, will serve as a board observer to the Laika Board of Directors.
Companies are increasingly reliant upon independent audits and assessments of software providers’ compliance controls. This has been a cumbersome, manual and lengthy process that results in missed deals and lost revenue.
Laika was founded to address this issue and help companies establish robust compliance practices by combining automated infosec workflows, audits, monitoring, and vendor due diligence in a single platform.
Laika supports its customers with subject matter experts at every step of the compliance process, including dedicated compliance architects to help companies navigate compliance processes and obtain security certifications.
Having achieved 4.5x ARR growth YOY, including 3.9x YOY customer growth and more than 50% of customers upgrading to the company’s Laika+ offering, the firm has proven to be a solid investment, especially for firms that highly need robust compliance solutions such as JP Morgan and PayPal.
Laika currently has 100 employees and expects to grow headcount by approximately 120 in the next 12 months, with a focus on building out its Sales and CX teams to support customers on the West Coast and Asia-Pacific region.
Austin Ogilvie, founder of Laika, said: “Compliance is very complex with many nuances across geographic and industry lines. This amounts to an untenable operating environment for virtually all software companies who lack the domain expertise to understand all compliance requirements let alone the ability to satisfy them all. The opportunity to help customers overcome these challenges is really exciting to us.”
