What ETHIQAIS does

ETHIQAIS is a European software company founded in 2024 in Strasbourg, France, that develops a SaaS platform for AI governance, compliance, and risk management. The platform is purpose-built for the EU regulatory environment, offering full EU data residency across hosted cloud, private cloud, and on-premises deployment options, with alignment to the EU AI Act, GDPR, and ISO/IEC 42001 standards. It operates as a unified product composed of three integrated modules: Spotlight (initiative assessment and vendor evaluation for managers and executives), TrustOps (documentation, controls, and audit-ready evidence for operations and governance teams), and Safeguard (real-time GenAI usage visibility, shadow AI detection, and data-leak prevention for organizations where employees use generative AI tools). A chatbot feature called Claire, powered by Mistral AI, delivers EU AI Act risk pre-assessment reports.

The underlying technology integrates with major engineering and collaboration tools (GitHub, GitLab, Confluence) and AI providers (OpenAI, Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot), while maintaining a proprietary catalog of 1300+ AI tools for shadow AI detection. ETHIQAIS sells through an enterprise sales-led motion with quote-based annual subscriptions, targeting regulated industries including pharmaceutical manufacturing (ProductLife Group), financial services (Crédit Agricole), and professional services (Forvis Mazars). The company maintains active contributions to the European AI Alliance, European Commission, Council of Europe CAI, ISO, AFNOR, and CEN-CENELEC standards bodies, embedding itself in the European AI policy ecosystem.

Commercially, ETHIQAIS operates as a privately-held SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) with €24,000 share capital and no disclosed external funding rounds. The core team consists of 5 named members led by CEO & Co-Founder Alina Holcroft and CTO & Co-Founder Massimo Venuti. The company was incubated at SEMIA in late 2023 and has since earned recognition including La Tribune's Tech for Future 2025 startup of the year and selection for VivaTech 2025.

Name

ETHIQAIS

Legal name

ETHIQAIS

Website

https://ethiqais.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2024

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

ETHIQAIS is a French SaaS company founded in 2024 that provides an EU-built AI governance platform with three modules (Spotlight, TrustOps, Safeguard) for AI initiative assessment, compliance documentation, and GenAI data protection, targeting regulated European enterprises.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI Governance Software

NAICS

Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Enterprise AI Governance, Risk & Compliance Platforms (Model Risk, Audit, Policies) (HDAEANAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

AI Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Platforms (HDAAAMAA), Regulatory Readiness & Audit Automation (e.g., EU AI Act, NIST AI RMF, ISO/IEC 42001) (HDAAAMAE), Responsible AI, Security & Privacy Platforms (Safety, Guardrails, PII) (HDAEANAG), Audit, Explainability & Accountability Tooling (traceability, reporting) (HDAAAKAL), Responsible AI, AI Governance & Compliance Services (BPAEAHAJ)

Keywords

• AI governance software
• EU AI Act compliance
• GenAI security platform
• Shadow AI detection
• AI risk management

Headquarters

HQ city

Strasbourg

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. SaaS Platform Subscription: Annual or multi-year subscription-based access to AI governance platform with three modules (Spotlight, TrustOps, Safeguard). Pricing is quote-based, suggesting tiered enterprise pricing.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

ETHIQAIS is a European SaaS platform for AI governance, compliance, and risk management that helps organizations assess AI initiatives, operationalize EU AI Act and GDPR compliance, and protect enterprise GenAI usage. Its offering is structured as three integrated modules (Spotlight, TrustOps, Safeguard) covering the full AI governance lifecycle from vendor and use case assessment, through continuous documentation and audit-ready reporting, to real-time shadow AI discovery and data leakage prevention. Deployments can be hosted on EU cloud, private cloud, or on-premises with integrations across major AI providers and enterprise collaboration tools.

Product overview

ETHIQAIS is a European AI governance platform built as a unified product with three integrated modules: Spotlight (for assessing AI initiatives and vendor evaluation), TrustOps (for operationalizing compliance and documentation), and Safeguard (for protecting GenAI usage and detecting shadow AI). The platform also includes a chatbot called Claire for EU AI Act risk pre-assessments. Deployed via EU cloud, private cloud, or on-premises options, with integration support for major ML platforms, AI tools, and enterprise collaboration software.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• ETHIQAIS Platform A unified European AI governance SaaS platform that combines three integrated modules (Spotlight, TrustOps, Safeguard) to help organizations assess AI initiatives, operationalize compliance, and protect enterprise GenAI adoption at scale, with EU cloud, private cloud, or on-premises deployment options.
• Spotlight An AI initiative assessment module for managers and executives that maps use cases, qualifies AI initiatives, evaluates vendors, applies a shared assessment model, detects overlaps, runs integrated risk analysis, and produces documented decision records to guide safer AI adoption.
• TrustOps An AI compliance and traceability module for operations teams that centralizes AI documentation, applies standards-aligned controls (EU AI Act, GDPR, ISO/IEC 42001), enables continuous compliance monitoring, provides end-to-end traceability of AI systems, and generates audit-ready reporting and evidence.
• Safeguard A GenAI data protection module for employees and security teams that discovers shadow AI usage through a catalog of 1300+ AI tools, performs real-time prompt and document scanning for sensitive data, enforces organizational policies, and provides an incident dashboard with trends and risk category analytics.

Quantifiable outcome

• Product catalog of 1300+ AI tools for shadow AI discovery

Named customers5 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration13 records

AI capability6 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• SEMIAcoreOthersStartup incubator where ETHIQAIS was incubated starting late 2023. SEMIA supports innovative startups in Alsace region.
• OVHcloudcoreTechnology or IntegrationCloud infrastructure partner for hosted deployment options. OVHcloud provides EU-based cloud hosting for ETHIQAIS platform.
• La French TechcoreGTM or Marketing PartnerEcosystem partner in the French Tech initiative supporting French technology companies.
• BPI FranceminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFrench public investment bank supporting innovative French companies.
• OrangeminorGTM or Marketing PartnerFrench telecommunications company supporting the startup ecosystem.
• Mistral AIcoreTechnology or IntegrationTechnology partner providing AI model capabilities for ETHIQAIS's Claire chatbot feature.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• ServiceNow GRC: ServiceNow's integrated risk and compliance suite has added AI governance capabilities. It competes for the same enterprise GRC budget with much larger sales coverage and existing deployments, making it a credible displacement risk for ETHIQAIS in larger accounts.
• OneTrust: OneTrust is a broad privacy, GRC, and ethics platform that has expanded into AI governance. While not an AI-governance specialist, it competes for the same enterprise governance, risk, and compliance budget and has the scale, capital, and existing customer base to out-execute a specialist on breadth.
• TrustArc: TrustArc is a privacy and GRC platform with growing AI governance offerings. It competes for overlapping enterprise compliance budgets and serves similar regulated-industry buyers, though it is broader than ETHIQAIS's AI-specific focus.
• Collibra: Collibra is a data intelligence and governance platform with emerging AI governance capabilities. It addresses similar enterprise buyers (CDOs, governance teams) and could expand into EU AI Act compliance use cases that overlap with ETHIQAIS's TrustOps module.
• Microsoft Purview / Compliance Manager: Microsoft Purview and Compliance Manager offer AI-related governance, data protection, and compliance assessment tooling tightly integrated with Microsoft Copilot and Azure. Many EU enterprises already standardized on Microsoft will favor this incumbent over a specialist like ETHIQAIS.
• IBM watsonx.governance: IBM watsonx.governance provides AI lifecycle governance, model risk management, and regulatory compliance tooling as part of the broader watsonx platform. It is a well-capitalized incumbent competing for the same regulated-buyer AI governance purchases as ETHIQAIS.

Direct peers

• Monitaur: Monitaur offers an AI governance platform focused on model risk management, documentation, audit, and compliance. It is closely comparable to ETHIQAIS's TrustOps module and addresses similar buyers in financial services and regulated industries.
• Holistic AI: Holistic AI provides an AI governance, risk, and compliance platform covering AI inventory, risk assessment, and regulatory readiness (including EU AI Act). It is a directly comparable specialist peer targeting the same regulated-industry buyers as ETHIQAIS.
• Credo AI: Credo AI is a direct competitor offering an AI governance, risk, and compliance platform with policy management, assessments, and audit readiness. It targets similar buyer personas (AI governance leads, risk and compliance teams) and overlaps heavily with ETHIQAIS's Spotlight and TrustOps modules.

Emerging players

• DataRobot: DataRobot is an enterprise AI platform with governance features for model documentation, monitoring, and compliance. It overlaps partially with ETHIQAIS's TrustOps capability but is primarily an AI development platform rather than a pure governance vendor.

Market position

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ethiqais

Compliance3 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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

M&A

Investments

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

Frequently asked questions about ETHIQAIS