Calibre, founded by Ex-Palantirs in London, Raises $3.3M for AI Testing
London-based tech startup Calibre has raised $3.3 million in a pre-seed funding round. The capital is intended to bring artificial intelligence to one of the overlooked yet economically significant industries: the testing, inspection, and certification industry, known as TIC.
The round was led by venture capital firms Vicus Ventures and CIV. Additional investors include I2BF, 9 Yards Capital, and Jigeum. Individual investors include Nikesh Arora, a well-known name in the technology industry. The participating investors have previously backed companies such as Databricks, Coinbase, and Anduril.
The company was founded by Gautham Senthilnathan and Steve Thomas, who met during their studies. Both previously spent three years at the controversial data company Palantir, where they deployed AI systems across more than 20 different industries. According to the founders, this experience forms the foundation for Calibre’s approach to developing industry-specific AI solutions.
What problem does Calibre want to solve?
The TIC industry is a global market worth more than $200 billion. Nearly every regulated product — whether aircraft components, banking systems, or food supply chains — must be certified by human auditors before it can be brought to market. This process typically takes three to six months and significantly slows down companies and supply chains.
Calibre says it has worked closely with auditors and inspectors and found that professionals spend the majority of their working time reviewing thousands of pages of documents and writing reports. Little time remains for the actual expert decisions they were trained to make. Compounding the problem, the industry is facing a skills shortage: many experienced auditors are retiring while few new professionals are entering the field.
“AI is being embedded in an ever-growing number of product categories, each requiring certification, at precisely the moment when experts with decades of specialist knowledge are retiring.” (Calibre)
What can Calibre’s technology do?
Calibre develops specialized AI agents that are deployed within the existing organizational structures of TIC organizations. The systems are tailored to each customer’s specific safety standards and workflows. Specifically, the agents are designed to handle the following tasks:
- Automatic review and analysis of large volumes of documents
- Generation of audit reports based on defined standards
- Matching requirements against relevant norms and regulations
- Support for compliance with internal company safety standards
In addition, Calibre has announced a first product specifically for independent auditors called AuditorOS. The software automates document review, report writing, and the matching of applicable standards. According to the company, AuditorOS is already being used by initial customers and is set to be publicly available in June.
How will the fresh capital be used?
With the newly raised funds, Calibre plans to expand existing enterprise contracts with publicly listed TIC companies and accreditation bodies. The team is also set to grow with the addition of engineers. Interested auditors can already sign up for a waitlist for AuditorOS.
