Diligent

What Diligent does

Diligent is a Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) SaaS company headquartered in New York, founded in 2001 and operating as a private, Blackstone/Clearlake-backed entity. The company serves over 25,000 organizations and roughly 1 million users (including ~700,000 board directors) across 130+ countries, with 75% of the Fortune 500 as customers. Its product surface spans four functional pillars — governance (Diligent Boards, BoardEffect, Entities, Community, Market Intelligence), risk (AI Risk Essentials, Enterprise Risk Management, IT & Cyber Risk Management, Third-Party Risk Management/3rdRisk), compliance (Policy Manager, Speak Up Manager, Third Party Manager, Due Diligence), and audit (Internal Audit, ACL Analytics, Internal Controls) — unified under the Diligent One Platform.

Technically, the platform is hosted on AWS with regionalized data residency (including AWS GovCloud for U.S. federal customers) and uses Amazon Bedrock for AI model hosting. Diligent has pivoted toward an agentic-AI architecture, launching a coordinated network of autonomous agents (AI Board Member, Subsidiary Governance Agent, Enterprise Risk Governance Agent) plus AuditAI, ACL AI Studio, Third-Party Risk Intel, and Diligent Cyber Risk Management. The platform carries SOC 2 Type II, ISO/IEC 27001, FedRAMP, and HIPAA-aligned certifications, which are material trust signals for its regulated buyer base.

The business model is recurring SaaS subscription revenue, sold through enterprise field sales for large organizations, inside sales for mid-market, and limited self-serve/early-access motions for new AI features. Pricing is quote-based (per-seat or enterprise-wide, annual billing) and not publicly disclosed. Go-to-market is anchored by the flagship Elevate conference, the Diligent Institute think tank, and content/thought-leadership channels, complemented by channel partners and a Snowflake Marketplace data-distribution channel. The short description cites $500M+ revenue and a $7B+ valuation tied to a 2024 sale exploration by its PE owners.

Name

Diligent

Legal name

Diligent Boardbooks Limited

Website

https://diligent.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2001

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1,001–5,000 employees

Short description

Diligent is a private, PE-backed GRC SaaS provider whose AI-powered Diligent One Platform unifies board governance, risk, compliance, and audit workflows for 25,000+ organizations—including 75% of the Fortune 500—across 130+ countries.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132), Software Publishers (513210), Software Publishers (51321)

SIC

Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)

akta.pro primary industry

IT Governance, Risk & Compliance (IT GRC) Platforms (HDAEALAK)

akta.pro secondary industries

Third-Party Risk, Vendor Due Diligence & Supply Chain Compliance (BPAEAPAG), Enterprise AI Governance, Risk & Compliance Platforms (Model Risk, Audit, Policies) (HDAEANAE)

Keywords

• Governance risk compliance
• Board management software
• GRC SaaS platform
• Third-party risk management
• Internal audit automation

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices11 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription Revenue: Recurring subscription revenue from the Diligent One Platform and individual module licenses for governance, risk, compliance, and audit solutions. Pricing is quote-based and typically per-seat or enterprise-wide licensing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Diligent sells an AI-powered Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) SaaS platform that unifies board management, enterprise and IT/cyber risk management, regulatory compliance, third-party risk management, and internal audit for organizations. Its Diligent One Platform anchors a portfolio of standalone products (Diligent Boards, BoardEffect, Entities, Community, AI Risk Essentials, Third-Party Risk Management, Policy Manager, Speak Up Manager, Internal Audit, ACL Analytics, etc.) enhanced by agentic AI capabilities such as AI Board Member, AuditAI, ACL AI Studio, and Diligent Cyber Risk Management.

Product overview

Diligent is an AI-powered Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) SaaS platform company offering a unified platform-plus-modules architecture. The Diligent One Platform serves as the central hub that unifies all board management and GRC activities across governance (Diligent Boards, BoardEffect, Entities, Community, Diligent Market Intelligence), risk (AI Risk Essentials, Enterprise Risk Management, IT Compliance, IT & Cyber Risk Management, Third-Party Risk Management/3rdRisk), compliance (Policy Manager, Due Diligence, Compliance Advisory Services, Speak Up Manager, Compliance Education, Third Party Manager, Third-Party Risk Intel), and audit (Internal Audit, ACL Analytics, Internal Controls, AuditAI). The platform is enhanced by AI capabilities including AI Board Member, ACL AI Studio, Diligent Cyber Risk Management, Diligent Stewardship Intelligence, and Diligent Data Room. Diligent serves over 25,000 customers with 700,000 board members across 130 countries, with 75% of Fortune 500 companies as customers.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Diligent Boards: Board portal for board management, meeting automation, and secure document sharing for directors
• BoardEffect
• Diligent One Platform
• ACL AI Studio
• Diligent Institute
• Elevate Awards
• Modern Governance 100

Products and services

• Diligent One Platform Unified SaaS platform centralizing governance, risk, compliance and audit functions with AI capabilities and board-level decision insights.
• Diligent Boards Board portal software that automates meeting preparation, secures sensitive data, and provides directors with AI-enhanced governance features for board oversight.
• BoardEffect Secure, flexible board management software designed for nonprofits and higher education institutions.
• Entities Corporate entity management solution for managing subsidiaries with a centralized corporate record that is always up to date.
• Community Governance software for school districts and local government to enhance transparency, compliance, livestreaming, document publication, and stakeholder engagement.
• Diligent Market Intelligence On-demand access to exclusive shareholder activism, executive compensation and ESG data.
• AI Risk Essentials AI-powered enterprise risk management solution enabling quick implementation of an ERM program that scales to organizational needs.
• Enterprise Risk Management Comprehensive risk management solution for identifying, assessing and mitigating risks that could impact organizational objectives.
• IT Compliance Solution for streamlining IT compliance with AI automation, cross-framework mapping, and real-time insights.
• IT & Cyber Risk Management Solution for effectively monitoring, assessing and remediating IT and cyber risks to organizational assets.
• Third-Party Risk Management (3rdRisk) AI-native vendor risk management software enabling organizations to efficiently assess, monitor and mitigate third-party risks.
• Policy Manager Solution for quickly and seamlessly reviewing, creating, deploying, and administering corporate policies.
• Due Diligence Best-in-class due diligence services fueled by AI capabilities and human investigational skills.
• Compliance Advisory Services Practitioner-led expertise for building defensible compliance programs.
• Speak Up Manager Employee whistleblower and case management solution with AI-driven tools for safe reporting and investigation tracking.
• Compliance Education Compliance education solution that drives real behavior change and strengthens organizational culture.
• Third Party Manager Solution for systemizing and automating third-party monitoring and compliance processes.
• Third-Party Risk Intel Automated third-party screening and risk triage powered by agentic AI, offering entity resolution, comprehensive risk screening, and AI-driven risk synthesis.
• Internal Audit AI-powered audit and assurance tools for simplifying compliance and internal audit processes.
• ACL Analytics Analytics solution for automating manual processes and providing continuous monitoring without adding headcount.
• Internal Controls Risk quantification solution with live dashboards that improve compliance, coverage and efficiency.
• AI Board Member Secure AI assistant for board directors that recalls board materials, industry news and research, generates meeting minutes, assigns action items, and provides specialist guidance on AI, cyber, risk, audit and governance topics.
• AuditAI Suite of agentic AI tools for internal audit teams that automates planning, evidence collection and reporting, reducing audit administration time by approximately 70%.
• Diligent Cyber Risk Management Agentic AI solution that connects cybersecurity threats directly to business context and strategic objectives, with AI-powered risk assessments, automated asset-level risk scoring, remediation tracking, and board-ready reporting dashboards.
• Diligent Stewardship Intelligence Independent proxy and voting intelligence data solution for asset managers delivering policy-ready governance data up to 70% faster than other providers, with over 525 compensation data points and 300 governance fields per company.
• ACL AI Studio AI-powered tool within the Diligent One Platform that enables non-technical users to conduct complex GRC data analysis through a natural language interface, processing millions of records in real time.
• Diligent Data Room AI-powered secure collaboration platform for transaction readiness, streamlining due diligence for capital raising, M&A, and IPO transactions by centralizing sensitive materials and corporate records.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduces manual cyber risk work from weeks to hours
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers4 records

Segments10 records

Ideal customer profiles5 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

AI capability8 records

Feature8 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreTechnology or Integration · 9 March 2026Diligent's platform is hosted on AWS cloud infrastructure with regionalized data storage across multiple regions including US East, Canada Central, Europe Frankfurt, Europe London, Asia Pacific Tokyo, Asia Pacific Singapore, Australia Sydney, Brazil, South Africa, and AWS GovCloud for US Federal customers.
• 3rdRiskcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 14 January 2026Diligent acquired 3rdRisk, an AI-native third-party risk management platform headquartered in the Netherlands, in January 2026. The acquisition strengthens Diligent's position as the only GRC provider recognized as a Leader by all five major industry analyst firms. Bram Ketting continues as co-founder and CEO following the deal. This enables organizations to achieve audit-readiness in weeks rather than quarters.
• Persefoni AIcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 22 October 2025Strategic partnership formed October 2025 where Diligent transitions its carbon accounting clients to Persefoni's sustainability management platform and takes an equity stake in the company. The collaboration combines Diligent's governance expertise with Persefoni's carbon management and AI-powered disclosure tools to help enterprises meet EU's Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and ISSB framework requirements.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Direct peers

• Workiva: Workiva is a direct peer in cloud-based GRC, ESG/sustainability reporting, and SOX/audit workflows. Both vendors target SEC reporting, board reporting, and ESG disclosure teams at large public companies, with overlapping product lines in compliance and risk.
• RSA (Archer): RSA Archer is a direct peer in enterprise GRC and integrated risk management, with long-standing penetration in financial services and regulated industries. It competes head-to-head with Diligent's Enterprise Risk Management, IT Compliance, and IT & Cyber Risk Management products.
• OneTrust: OneTrust is a direct peer in privacy, ethics, compliance, GRC, and third-party risk management. Both vendors target the same enterprise risk and compliance buyers with overlapping third-party risk and ethics/compliance case management capabilities.
• NAVEX Global: NAVEX Global is a direct peer in ethics, compliance, whistleblower, and third-party risk management. Both vendors compete for compliance officers and risk leaders, with overlapping solutions in Speak Up, due diligence, and policy management.
• AuditBoard: AuditBoard is a direct peer in audit, risk, and compliance SaaS, particularly strong in internal audit and SOX. Both vendors compete for audit teams at mid-market and enterprise customers and now overlap with Diligent's AuditAI and Internal Audit modules.

Broad incumbents

• SAP GRC: SAP GRC is a broad incumbent in access control, process control, and enterprise risk within the SAP ecosystem. It is comparable to Diligent as a GRC suite for large, SAP-centric enterprises — often favored for native ERP integration over best-of-breed GRC vendors.
• ServiceNow: ServiceNow is a broad incumbent offering Integrated Risk Management (IRM) and GRC modules on its enterprise platform. It competes with Diligent's risk and compliance products as part of a much larger enterprise workflow suite, often leveraging pre-existing ServiceNow contracts.
• IBM OpenPages: IBM OpenPages is a broad-incumbent GRC platform for operational risk, regulatory compliance, and IT governance, with strong installed base among global financial institutions. It overlaps with Diligent's ERM, IT Compliance, and regulatory reporting capabilities.

Emerging players

• Vanta: Vanta is an emerging player in automated compliance and trust management (SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA), increasingly moving up-market into broader GRC. It is comparable to Diligent in compliance automation but focuses on a more mid-market and tech-customer base.
• LogicGate: LogicGate is an emerging player in risk and compliance workflow automation with a flexible no-code GRC platform. It is comparable to Diligent's risk and compliance modules but typically serves mid-market customers with simpler, more configurable deployments.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat6 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/diligentcorporation
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/diligent-board-member-services
• Xx.com/diligentHQ

Compliance4 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds5 records

Investors6 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A15 records

Investments1 record

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Diligent