Compliance is moving away from the legal field to enter that of data, long confined to legal departments and paper documentation, it becomes software, an infrastructure, a continuous flow of signals to be audited and automated. This shift is embodied in a new generation of actors who view regulation as a technological service.
Formalize, a Danish company founded in 2021, built its platform on the simple promise of transforming European regulatory complexity into automated processes. Its tool centralizes the management of obligations linked to frameworks such as GDPR, NIS2, DORA or ISO27001. Corporate clients can track their compliance in real time, link their audits to their data feeds and generate reports tailored to national authorities. For many SMEs, this approach replaces Excel files and job consultants with an ongoing service, billed on a subscription basis.
The concept of “compliance-as-a-service” is essential in a context where European regulation is intensifying. New guidelines on cybersecurity, data protection and sustainability now require thousands of companies to document their procedures and internal controls. However, these obligations are no longer limited to large listed companies, they extend to subcontractors, distributors and partners, generating a homogeneous software market across the continent.
In this expanding market, automation is becoming the main lever. According to Jakob Lilholm, co-founder and CEO of Formalize, “compliance is no longer optional; it’s essential for doing business. At Formalize, we’re building a future where automation and AI simplify GRC for European SMBs without ever compromising on security or the local expertise that defines us.” The company has established itself by combining a transversal automation engine with local variations, adapted to each country and sector.
Copenhagen-based Formalize has raised €30 million in Series B, a round co-led by ACTON CAPITAL (Germany) and BLACKFIN TECH (France), with participation from WEST HILL CAPITAL and CIBC INNOVATION BANKING. The company has raised 50 million euros since its creation in 2021 by Jakob Lilholm and Christian Jessen. It has 160 employees and more than 8,000 customers spread across several European countries.
