Zurich-based Calvin Risk secures €3.8 million to boost AI governance platform | EU-Startups

Calvin Risk, a Swiss startup founded in 2022 as a spin-off from ETH Zurich, has raised €3.8 million in a seed funding round to enhance its AI governance platform. The investment was led by Join Capital and seed + speed Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to over €4.7 million.

Calvin Risk has also forged partnerships with institutions like Aviva, Lloyds Banking Group, and Lufthansa Industry Solutions.

The company’s platform offers a comprehensive approach to AI risk management, using quantitative assessments and continuous monitoring to identify potential risks before they materialise. With AI models often operating as “black boxes,” transparency and accountability have become critical, especially as the EU AI Act prepares to enforce stricter guidelines for AI systems.

Despite this, some organisations still rely on post-incident analysis or lack structured frameworks to address the safety of their AI. Calvin Risk is aiming to bridge 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.

Calvin Risk’s real-time oversight of AI portfolios is aiming to provide businesses with tools to ensure compliance, making it easier for Boards to integrate AI governance into their operations.

“With AI systems becoming central to operations, proper corporate governance must now include explicit AI risk management at the Board level,” commented Julian Riebartsch, CEO and Founder of Calvin Risk. “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.”

Looking ahead, Calvin Risk plans to expand its platform’s capabilities to support the business & analytics team of 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.

“Our goal is to ensure every enterprise can innovate confidently, while maintaining the highest standards of safety and compliance,” added Riebartsch.