What Cairn does

Cairn is a Boston-headquartered, privately-held software company that has built an OSHA compliance research platform for corporate safety and operations teams. The product is anchored to a comprehensive index of the federal OSHA record — 29 CFR 1910 and 1926 standards, decades of OSHA interpretation letters and directives, the full federal enforcement history (inspections, violations, accident narratives, penalty records), and federal injury/illness data — totaling hundreds of thousands of citations across individual standards. Users ask plain-language compliance questions and receive cited answers, with every claim linking back to its underlying .gov source; the platform explicitly refuses to answer when the federal record is silent. NAICS-aware context automatically scopes queries and benchmarks to the customer's industry. Core products include Search & Answer, Enforcement Lookup, Industry Benchmarking (TRIR/DART versus NAICS peers), and a Letter of Interpretation (LOI) Drafter that turns chat sessions into print-ready PDF LOI requests; a free, no-signup Citation-Risk Tool and a field-guides content library round out the surface.

Cairn goes to market with a sales-led, contract-billed motion targeting safety and operations leaders, with 30-minute live demos keyed to the prospect's NAICS code and an annual subscription model. Pricing is tiered: Starter at $5,000 per year (up to 5 seats, 500 queries per month), Professional (up to 25 seats, 5,000 queries per month, quoted by invoice), and Enterprise (unlimited seats, custom query volume, API access, SSO via SAML/Okta/Azure AD, dedicated CSM). Billing terms are Net-30 standard and Net-60 for Fortune 1000 accounts, with no credit-card or self-serve checkout. The company has organized its commercial effort around six NAICS verticals — Manufacturing, Construction, Oil & Gas, Warehousing & Logistics, Chemical Manufacturing, and Utilities — and currently serves only the United States. Security and compliance posture includes SOC 2 Type II audit in progress (targeting Q4 2026) and a HIPAA BAA available on the Enterprise tier, indicating preparation for larger enterprise and regulated-buyer procurement.

Name

Cairn

Legal name

Cairn

Website

https://cairnsafe.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2026

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cairn is a Boston-based SaaS platform that gives safety and operations leaders plain-language, citation-backed answers to OSHA compliance questions by indexing the entire federal enforcement record, targeting manufacturing, construction, oil & gas, logistics, chemical, and utility customers on annual contracts.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Boston

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

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

Revenue model

1. SaaS Subscription (Seat + Query Volume): Annual subscription based on seat count and monthly query volume. Billed by invoice. Three tiers: Starter ($5,000/year for 5 seats, 500 queries/month), Professional (up to 25 seats, 5,000 queries/month), and Enterprise (unlimited seats, custom query volume). Multi-year and multi-org discounts available.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Cairn sells an AI-powered OSHA compliance research platform that lets safety and operations leaders ask plain-language questions and get cited answers drawn from 29 CFR standards (1910 + 1926), OSHA interpretation letters, the federal enforcement record, and adjacent safety research. The product is delivered as a SaaS subscription (Starter, Professional, Enterprise) with modules for Search & Answer, Enforcement Lookup, Industry Benchmarking, and a Letter of Interpretation Drafter. Every claim links to its underlying .gov source so answers can be verified by a CFO, board, or OSHA Area Director.

Product overview

Cairn is an OSHA compliance research platform offering four core modules that all read the same federal OSHA record. The core platform consists of Search & Answer (plain-language Q&A with citations), Enforcement Lookup (inspection/violation search), Industry Benchmarking (TRIR/DART benchmarking), and the Letter of Interpretation Drafter (automated LOI request creation). The platform also includes a free Citation-Risk Tool and Field Guides content library. All modules share the same underlying corpus of 29 CFR standards, OSHA interpretation letters, enforcement records, and safety research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Search & Answer Plain-language question-and-answer tool that returns cited answers from 29 CFR standard text, OSHA interpretation letters, the enforcement record, and adjacent safety research, with each claim linked to its underlying .gov source. First token returns in under one second. Targeted at safety and operations leaders who need defensible compliance answers.
• Enforcement Lookup Searchable database of OSHA inspections, violations, and accident narratives covering decades of federal enforcement history. Searchable by establishment, NAICS code, state, standard, or hazard category, with CSV/PDF export. Designed for compliance and legal teams performing citation history and benchmarking research.
• Industry Benchmarking TRIR and DART rate benchmarking against NAICS peers, including citation profile, penalty ranges, and abatement timelines. Charts are export-ready for board presentations. Used by safety leaders to contextualize incident rates during board and executive reporting.
• Letter of Interpretation Drafter Converts a Cairn chat session into a structured OSHA Letter of Interpretation request with background, question, and position fields. Carries citations from the conversation and exports a print-ready PDF on company letterhead. Built for safety teams preparing formal LOI requests for OSHA submission.
• OSHA Citation-Risk Tool Free public tool that returns the OSHA standards most cited in a user's NAICS code and state, with citation counts and penalty totals from the federal enforcement record. No signup required. Functions as top-of-funnel lead generation for the paid platform.

Quantifiable outcome

• Answers generated in under 1 second (first token)
• +3 more outcomes

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles6 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

AI capability4 records

Feature8 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Others

• Avetta: Contractor prequalification and supply-chain compliance platform. Adjacent to Cairn because both sell into safety and operations leaders, but Avetta focuses on third-party contractor vetting rather than federal-record compliance research.

Emerging players

• SafetyTek: Safety management software for SMB and mid-market safety teams, with digital forms, inspections, and compliance tracking. Comparable as an emerging peer competing for similar annual-contract customers.

Direct peers

• Intelex: EHS management software (Fortive-owned) with compliance, training, and incident modules serving manufacturing and utilities — directly overlapping Cairn's NAICS 31–33 and NAICS 22 segments.
• VelocityEHS: Established EHS software suite covering OSHA compliance, incident management, and training. Targets the same manufacturing, construction, and warehousing buyers and competes head-to-head for compliance-related seat licenses.
• Cority: Enterprise EHS platform with deep OSHA, PSM, and industrial hygiene modules. Competes for the same Fortune 1000 safety-leader wallet and offers overlapping compliance content and benchmarking features.
• SafetyCulture: iAuditor safety inspection and checklist platform used by operations and safety leaders across the same mid-market and enterprise segments Cairn targets. Both compete for the safety-team budget, with SafetyCulture focused on inspections/audits and Cairn focused on compliance research — overlapping buyers if not overlapping modules.
• EHS Insight: EHS software for mid-market safety teams with incident, inspection, and compliance tracking modules. Direct competitor for the same seat-based pricing and annual contract motion.
• ComplianceQuest: Cloud QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety, Environment) platform built on Salesforce with OSHA compliance and audit functionality. Targets the same mid-market and enterprise safety organizations.

Broad incumbents

• J.J. Keller: Long-established regulatory compliance content and services provider for transportation, safety, and HR. Overlaps with Cairn on regulatory research and compliance guidance but distributes primarily via content, training, and consulting rather than a cited-AI platform.
• Wolters Kluwer: Global regulatory and compliance information provider serving legal, tax, and EHS customers. Comparable as a broad incumbent that could enter the AI-cited compliance research space from its existing content base.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

Compliance2 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

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 Cairn