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Sydney-based artificial intelligence startup Haast has raised $6 million in seed funding following a strong take-up of its digital-marketing compliance solution by major clients such as Australian telco Telstra (ASX: TLS) and UK-based insurer and asset management firm Aviva.
The seed round, which followed a $1.2 million pre-seed raise in 2023, was led by Airtree, with participation from US-based defy.vc, Aura Ventures and Black Sheep Capital.
Haast says the latest funding will help to accelerate its mission to redefine compliance for the world’s largest organisations and support its push into the US.
Haast was founded in 2022 by Jason Watling, Kunal Vankadara and Liam King to remove manual work from marketing and content compliance, enabling organisations to achieve higher compliance faster without painful time-consuming reviews.
The startup says the compliance burden has ballooned as generative AI increases content volumes across industries, making traditional manual approaches unsustainable.
Haast says it is one of the first large language model deployments capable of such comprehensive automation for a mission-critical corporate process, turning weeks of manual effort into hours of intelligent review.
The company estimates that its technology reduces manual review by up to 80 per cent and gets compliant content live three times faster, while continuously monitoring for risk across live internal, external and third-party channels.
“Haast represents the future of compliance,” says Wessel van Keulen, head of regulatory change, frameworks and insights at Zurich Australia & New Zealand, one of Haast’s major corporate clients.
“Their innovative AI technology has the potential to revolutionise how organisations like ours manage risk in a fast-evolving regulatory environment. We’re excited to see how their platform will continue to transform compliance workflows for the better.”
Haast co-founder Kunal Vankadara says the technology doesn’t just automate – it “adapts to evolving regulatory needs, helping organisations manage complex risks before and after content goes live to avoid brand damage, lost revenue and costly fines”.
He says the seed funding is being applied to grow the Haast team and drive plans for US expansion, which is currently under way.
“This is just the beginning,” says Vankadara.
“We believe compliance technology is entering a new era, where AI works hand-in-hand with human expertise to eliminate inefficiency, reduce risk and create space for more strategic work. Haast is the technology to lead that future, globally.”
Jackie Vullinghs, partner at Airtree, says Haast demonstrates the power of "large language model" AI to drive business efficiencies.
“Their technology not only accelerates operations but also strengthens risk management by adapting to evolving regulatory requirements,” says Vullinghs.
“We’re proud to back Haast as they expand internationally, helping the world’s largest regulated businesses tackle their most complex compliance challenges.”
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