Calvin Risk funding news – Zurich-based Calvin Risk has Secured $4 Million in Seed Funding

Calvin Risk, a Swiss startup born out of ETH Zurich, has secured $4 million in seed funding to help companies deploy AI safely and manage these risks through automated testing and quantitative risk assessment. The investment round was led by JoinCapital and seed + speed Ventures, bringing total funding to more than $5 million since the company's inception in 2022.

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AI models often function as "black boxes", making it difficult to understand how decisions are made or whether underlying biases are influencing outcomes. For companies, this opacity can lead to unintended consequences that threaten both their operations and reputations – especially as generative AI systems like ChatGPT increasingly power customer interactions.

To make the stakes higher the upcoming EU AI Act introduces strict requirements for AI systems mandating that companies assess and document the risks of their AI models with severe penalties for non-compliance. Despite this many organizations still rely on post-incident analysis or lack structured frameworks to address the safety of their AI.

Calvin Risk is bridging that gap with a platform that uses adaptive assessments and continuous monitoring to provide a real-time overview of a company's entire AI portfolio, predicting potential risks (qualitatively and quantitatively) and their associated value-at-risk.

Julian Riebartsch, CEO and Founder of Calvin Risk said, “With AI systems becoming central to operations, proper corporate governance must now include explicit AI risk management at the Board level, Through our governance and risk management platform, we provide businesses with deep insights into their AI inventory, enabling them to analyse technical, ethical, and regulatory risks qualitatively and quantitatively.”

Alexander Kölpin, Investor and Managing Partner at seed + speed Ventures said, "As an investor, I see enormous potential in Calvin Risk to help shape the emerging market for AI risk management. The combination of technological excellence from academia and in-depth industry expertise makes this startup a real help for all those companies that use and build relevant AI-based business processes."

Calvin Risk Investor

Other partners include Lloyds Banking Group, the Audit Research Center (ARC Institute) for third-line defence solutions and others demonstrating strong market validation across multiple sectors.

‍Calvin Risk Milestone

Another milestone for Calvin Risk is its collaboration with Lufthansa Industry Solutions, resulting in the first GenAI model to earn an "Assessment Seal Certification" from leading certification company TÜV Süd. This certification, pivotal as industries anticipate the EU AI Act reflects Calvin Risk’s capacity to guarantee AI models meet rigorous technical and ethical benchmarks.

Tobias Schirmer, Founding Partner at Join Capital said "We are thrilled to be the lead investor in Calvin Risk's seed round. Their innovative approach, combined with a strong team and a clear vision positions them to become a vital resource for organisations navigating the complexities of AI compliance and risk management. We believe Calvin Risk will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of AI governance and are excited to support their journey."

Looking ahead, Calvin Risk plans to expand its platform's capabilities to support the business & analytics team of even more of their governance efforts while making sure that proper control and oversight is implemented, accessible, and easy to understand for control functions and management.

Funding Utilisation

This latest funding round will accelerate Calvin Risk's product development enabling it to scale its platform enhance its AI risk assessment tools, and expand its market reach across Europe. As AI adoption accelerates across industries, Calvin Risk remains committed to ushering in a new era of trustworthy AI.

About Calvin Risk

Founded in 2022 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, one of Europe's leading AI research institutions, Calvin Risk combines deep academic expertise with practical industry experience. The company’s product provides a modular framework for proactive AI governance with two core capabilities: governance digitization for internal directives and risk evaluations, and automated AI testing between development and deployment.

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