%20(1).jpg)
Why We Invested in Greenlite AI: The Compliance Layer for the AI Enterprise
I am excited to announce Canvas’s investment in Greenlite as part of their series A financing round from May of this year. Coming from a commercial banking background, I have always rooted for compliance automation tools because of the manually intensive nature of the work. Greenlite has built a platform that offers low touch integration with real automation benefits in the meatiest parts of compliance reviews (KYC/AML/Sanctions). They are benefiting from a macro trend of FIs taking real action to modernize their infrastructure stacks, and winning 7 and 8 figure contracts in months, and we believe they stand to become a leader in enterprise compliance across any regulated industry.
The Current State of Compliance Tech
In my early days of banking as a lending deal team associate, I was a COG in a lot of compliance workflows across different teams. Boy was it fun to check boxes for beneficial ownership thresholds that may or may not prompt reg D exceptions and business model exemption categories for enhanced KYC. Fast forward 13 years, client facing deal teams at banks/FIs are still the tip of the spear for responding to sanctions, KYC and AML alerts generated by the various back office point solutions. However these tools have mainly focused on adding new data and greater volume of alerts to workflows. The result has been more work for teams, which has led to more head count demand. What makes this entire process even more challenging is that client facing teams are not compliance folks and vice versa. This leads to multiple rounds of data getting passed back and forth between teams as they attempt to align on risk, meanwhile customers are in the middle of this process, sometimes fielding the same question 5 different ways.
Greenlite’s Approach
When we first met Greenlite, and realized they were working to create consistency and bring automation to the full life cycle of compliance flows, the light bulb very quickly went off. What Greenlite has done so well, and really is made possible through AI (see more below), is their ability to build workflows so that front and back end teams can align on compliance tasks with the fewest reps, while also capturing the highest value and correct information the first time so clients aren’t left in the middle of these cycles. The value prop is a triple threat; better client experience, saved operations cost, and improved risk management.
Why Now and Why AI
For years, automation in compliance has lagged behind while areas like invoicing or document execution were digitized quickly, Why? We think this was mainly a TAM issue which was largely cannibalized by the small handful of data provider like Lexus Nexus, etc. But that’s now changing as we believe value for the customer will accrue through agentic workflows which unlocks TAM for new players like Greenlite. Greenlite agents don’t just surface data, they make decisions, explain their reasoning, and continuously improve. And thanks to advances in foundation models, Greenlite can train on existing compliance data from clients themselves, creating a new moat that grows stronger with each implementation. Workflows for compliance are the key to driving automation, but you need good data and access to training as a way to deliver a complete product, and Greenlite now has built both. The result is a platform that delivers 3–4x ROI in weeks, and is already powering compliance operations at firms like Mercury, Ramp, and Betterment. It’s a modern alternative to legacy systems that’s easier to deploy, more transparent in its decisions, and fundamentally more scalable.
Why Workflows Will Win Long Term
Looking forward 5+ years, let us make a case for why “workflow software” rather than “compliance software” is a more exciting value prop to build a generational company. The early wave of SaaS saw companies like DocuSign and Coupa transform enterprise operations by replacing paper-based or manual workflows with intelligent, cloud-native platforms. What they did for contracts and procurement, Greenlite is now doing for compliance - one of the most expensive and people-heavy functions inside financial institutions. We believe Greenlite is building the compliance layer for the AI-powered enterprise, one that starts in fintech and scales across every highly regulated industry like healthcare, insurance and government. Just as DocuSign became the system of record for agreements, Greenlite has the opportunity to become the operating system for compliant decision-making in the enterprise. It’s an exciting thought and one we look forward to seeing play out as the company continues their impressive growth.