Why We Invested in Norm Ai
Unlocking efficient & effective compliance
By: Michael Robinson and Kindle Van Linge
We’re thrilled to share more about our investment in Norm Ai’s $48M funding round as they transform enterprise compliance review workflows with AI. We invested alongside Coatue, Vanguard, Blackstone Innovations Investments, Bain Capital, New York Life Ventures, Citi Ventures, TIAA Ventures, and Marc Benioff, who share our belief in Norm’s vision, team, and product.
Across every industry, regulations have become increasingly complex, nuanced, and layered, forcing companies to pour billions into compliance teams, outside counsel, and software. Norm is rewriting that story.
Their platform unlocks massive efficiency gains while accelerating business outcomes. Norm is the first company to deconstruct regulations in a way that allows Regulatory AI Agents to automate compliance checks.
We’ve been particularly excited by the caliber and scale of the customers Norm has attracted. As a true testament to the demand for Norm’s innovative compliance solution, the company now supports clients managing a combined $18 trillion+ in assets under management.
When we first met founder and CEO John Nay, we were immediately impressed by his unique background — he has a rare combination of technical and industry-specific domain expertise. His career spans a PhD in computational decision science from Vanderbilt, an adjunct professorship at NYU Law, and research affiliation at Stanford, where he pioneered “A Legal Informatics Approach to AI Alignment.” Outside of John’s incredible track record in the legal & AI arenas, we were inspired by his journey as a builder. John is a two-time founder/CEO — his first company, Brooklyn Investment Group, an AI-powered investment advisor, gave him a front-row seat to regulatory compliance and helped set the vision for Norm.
Alongside John is a powerhouse team of AI engineers from Google, Palantir and Meta, and attorneys — or as Norm calls them, “legal engineers” — from top law firms like Sullivan & Cromwell, Simpson Thatcher, Skadden Arps, and Sidley Austin. Norm also recently brought on former SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes as its Head of Capital Markets Strategy, another reflection of the incredible team getting behind Norm’s mission.
In addition to the team, the ecosystem of industry experts & advisors around Norm is second to none. In that spirit, the company today announced the formation of their regulatory advisory board with industry titans and government leaders including:
- Susan Dudley, former White House Regulatory Czar
- Ben Lawsky, former Superintendent of the NY State Dept of Financial Services
- Sandi Tillotson, Chief Compliance Officer of New York Life Insurance Company
- Marshall Sprung, Global Head of Compliance at Blackstone
- John Douglas, Chief Legal Officer of TIAA
- Matthew Watkins, Chief Compliance Officer of Coatue
Norm also announced the formation of their AI Agent Advisory Committee, which is made up of Chief Technology Officers and AI strategy leaders:
- John Stecher, Chief Technology Officer, Blackstone
- Jennifer Manry, Head of Corporate Systems, Vanguard
- Sastry Durvasula, Chief Operating, Information and Digital Officer, TIAA
- Alex Cook, Senior Vice President and Head of Strategic Capabilities, New York Life Insurance Company
- Sri Viswanath, CEO of Coatue Ventures, Former CTO of Atlassian
At Craft, we’ve been investing in companies that are rethinking the compliance workflow since our early partnership with Vanta. We’re big believers that compliance, with its repetitive, rule-based nature, is uniquely suited for AI-driven disruption. With Norm’s cutting-edge approach, the transformation of compliance processes is inevitable.
We couldn’t be more excited to be part of Norm’s journey!
