ESG data startup Sunhat announced that it has raised €9.2 million (USD$10.8 million) in a Series A funding round, with proceeds aimed at scaling its AI-powered solution to enable enterprises to validate sustainability and regulatory data.

Founded in 2022, Germany-based Sunhat provides solutions to help companies to rapidly prove and verify ESG and non-financial data for customers, regulators and investors, aimed at solving the “proof gap” of time and work for enterprises to report externally what they know internally. The company’s “Proof AI” intelligence platform, trained on insights from questionnaires, audits, and assessments, maps requirements for what counts as valid, verifiable proof for leading management standards such as ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, disclosure frameworks such as CDP and CSRD, and ESG ratings, to information enterprises already have in their systems. The platform also captures new information when it appears, checks for recency and completeness, and alert owners before anything expires or becomes invalid.

Lukas Vogt, CEO, and co-founder of Sunhat, said:

“Enterprises don’t have a sustainability problem, they have a proof problem. Companies are meeting standards, building quality systems, and hitting sustainability goals. But when someone asks for proof, finding it and making sure it checks all the boxes takes too long. Time-to-proof now decides who wins business and who doesn’t.”

Sunhat said that it is targeting growth of 10x over the next 15 months, with plans to reach 500 leading European, UK and North American enterprise customers, with the new capital enabling the company to continue its growth, double its headcount over the next 12 months, develop its platform beyond ESG data to support compliance with 100+ global standards and certifications, and add new integration partners.

The Series A funding round was led by fintech-focused investor CommerzVentures, with participation from existing investors including Capnamic, EnBW New Ventures, xdeck, and WEPA Ventures.

Paul Morgenthaler, Managing Partner at CommerzVentures, said:

“Too many companies lose deals just because they can’t move fast enough. We backed Sunhat because it turns that pain into an advantage. Proof AI knows what proof is needed and has it ready, so teams can respond instantly and confidently. That speed wins business.”