Trustible raises $4.6M, mainly from local funders, to hire and expand customer reach
An AI governance startup in Arlington prioritized local dollars in its latest funding round — and plans to use a large chunk of it to hire talent in the region.
Trustible announced today that it raised a $4.6 million seed round to nearly double its staff, connect with more customers and expand product development. The public benefit corporation developed tech to help companies and organizations track and understand risks associated with AI, take inventory of AI use cases, and comply with frameworks and regulations at a global scale.
Eighty percent of the funds in this oversubscribed round came from local angel investors and VC firms, per cofounder and CEO Gerald Kierce-Iturrioz. That's intentional, and he noted a 'bias' toward local funds when trying to raise.
'We think DC has a great opportunity to become a world-class tech hub,' Kierce-Iturrioz told Technical.ly, 'but we're only going to do that if we're investing in companies here — if we're bringing capital, talent and expertise here.'
This round, led by DC's Lookout Ventures, follows a $1.6 million pre-seed round through which Trustible emerged from stealth in 2023.
That first raise was also oversubscribed, the CEO said. It took only two and a half months to raise the money for this seed round, and a month and a half to complete the first raise in 2023.
For this round, Kierce-Iturrioz said he and leadership had to say no to some investors and reduce the check sizes from most of the remaining ones. Trustible also garnered several angel investors for the latest raise, including former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and ex-DC Mayor Adrian Fenty.
Plans to hire local talent, start a conference
Trustible's staff headcount currently sits at seven, but will rise to 12 by the end of the year, per Kierce-Iturrioz.
He's looking to hire engineers and go-to-market employees, plus a customer success manager. Some of those jobs are already open on Trustible's website. The firm has offices in a WeWork in Rosslyn, and employees operate in a hybrid setup, he said.
Of Trustible's total customer base, about a third are Fortune 500 companies, a little over half are publicly traded and more than 80% operate across the globe, per Kierce-Iturrioz. The company plans to put some of the new funds toward travel to meet more customers.
Kierce-Iturrioz is exploring launching Trustible's own conference, which could happen as soon as 2026.
He also wants to continue Trustible's research work and expand partnerships with nonprofits, think tanks and academic institutions working in AI. The team is already working with the Center for Security and Emerging Technology at Georgetown. Trustible also created its own research tool to evaluate and score the transparency of different companies' AI models.
Trustible wasn't necessarily in need of cash, Kierce-Iturrioz explained, so this raise will mainly be used to accelerate growth.
'We feel like we have an enterprise-ready product,' he said. 'We feel like we have the right team. We just needed more resources.'
A high demand for AI governance
Kierce-Iturrioz is also seeing increased interest in tools like Trustible's, and companies act on AI governance without congressional or other federal regulations in place. Regulations matter, but market forces are equally important, he said, and frameworks exist like those from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a Gaithersburg, Maryland-based agency with which Trustible has collaborated.
'You don't need to wait on Congress or the European Union to pass a regulation to tell you what to do,' he said, adding: 'There's a national conversation, and there's a realization that we want to do this right, and we feel that AI governance is the path to doing it right.'
At the same time, Kierce-Iturrioz believes companies would benefit from action by Congress — though an AI regulation moratorium would be harmful. A version of that prohibition originally appeared in the sweeping tax bill that Senate Republicans ultimately revised Friday.
Kierce-Iturrioz has been in touch with local Rep. Don Beyer, but noted Trustible doesn't have a formal 'advocacy' strategy when it comes to policy.
'We want to participate in this conversation,' Kierce-Iturrioz said. 'We have a voice and research that we can share.'
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