The best-funded legal and regtech startups in the Netherlands in 2026

Dutch legal and regtech startups are increasingly closing serious funding rounds. Compliance automation, KYC, deepfake detection and AI governance are attracting both European and American investors in 2026. That is the picture that emerges from an overview of twelve Dutch companies in this segment, with combined funding totalling well over €460 million, though that figure is heavily skewed by an outlier in the cybersecurity space.

The standout this year is Duna, an Amsterdam-based company founded in 2023 by former Stripe executives Duco van Lanschot and David Schreiber. In February 2026, Duna raised €30 million in a Series A led by CapitalG, Alphabet's independent growth fund. Index Ventures, Puzzle Ventures and Frank Slootman, chairman of Snowflake, also participated. Earlier, in May 2025, the company had already closed a seed round of €10.7 million. Total funding in the database stands at €40 million. Duna is building a platform for business onboarding and compliance automation, with the aim of creating a kind of digital passport for companies worldwide.

The fact that CapitalG, a fund that typically only invests once growth has been proven, is participating at the Series A stage in a two-year-old company says something about confidence in the market for compliance infrastructure. Regulations such as the AI Act, DORA and tightened AML directives are generating demand that shows no sign of abating.

Large numbers and what lies behind them

The most striking figure in the overview belongs to Utrecht-based Clember: €340 million. That amount is, however, the result of an acquisition in 2017, not a traditional venture round. Clember, founded in 2023, offers cybersecurity analyses for consultants and therefore falls partly outside conventional startup funding logic. The figure colours the overall picture, but comparing it with seed or Series A rounds from other companies in this segment is of little use.

The second highest-funded player is 20face from Enschede, which raised €36.8 million in a Series D in 2022. The company develops privacy-safe facial recognition for access control, a niche with growing overlap with compliance requirements around biometric data under the GDPR and the AI Act. A Series D is relatively rare for a Dutch regtech player; it indicates that 20face has already completed multiple rounds and has an established customer base.

Duna follows with €40 million in total, but stands out for the speed of its fundraising and the names behind the round. Securly from Eindhoven stands at €23 million after a Series B; the company focuses on compliance and security for web applications, with AI at its core. Vartion from Amsterdam, active in KYC, AML and life science analyses, raised €9.7 million in a Series B in 2022.

Seed stage still busy

Alongside the larger rounds, a group of younger companies has recently raised seed capital. Zeno from Sliedrecht, founded in 2024, is building an AI platform for document analysis and case file construction for legal teams, and raised €2 million in 2024. Struck from Amsterdam, also founded in 2024, focuses on building regulations and permit insights for the construction sector and raised the same amount: €2 million in seed funding.

DuckDuckGoose from Delft, active in deepfake detection for compliance and identity verification, closed a seed round of €1.3 million in 2024. Supplied from Zwolle, which automates KYC, AML and DAC7 compliance for digital platforms, raised €1.6 million in 2025. Voyc from The Hague, which automatically monitors customer conversations for compliance risks, has raised €1.7 million in seed funding. Awesome Compliance Technology from Amsterdam, focused on GDPR and AI Act compliance, raised €1.2 million in a pre-seed round.

Deeploy from Utrecht sits slightly outside the seed category with €8.5 million raised in a Series A in 2024. The company provides an AI governance platform for compliance and risk management, a segment that directly addresses obligations under the European AI Act.

What attracts investors to this segment

Placing these companies side by side reveals a number of recurring patterns. First, virtually every company in this overview is directly dependent on regulatory pressure as a business model driver. KYC and AML are not optional but mandatory for financial institutions; AI governance is increasingly becoming so under the AI Act; deepfake detection addresses identity verification requirements. Regulation functions here as a constant demand factor, independent of the economic cycle.

Second, many of these startups opt for a specific niche rather than a broad compliance platform. Voyc focuses on conversations, DuckDuckGoose on synthetic media, Struck on building permits, Zeno on legal documentation. That specialisation makes it easier to quickly build a defensible position within a specific customer group.

Third, it is notable that the combination of AI expertise and legal or regulatory knowledge is increasingly seen as a differentiating factor. Generic AI tools are plentiful; a product that understands the specific logic of DAC7 reporting or AML screening is harder to replicate.

For investors, this translates into a sector with relatively predictable demand dynamics, driven by European legislation, but also one with longer sales cycles at large financial institutions or government bodies. Seed activity shows that there is still ample room for new entrants, while the rounds raised by 20face, Duna and Deeploy demonstrate that scaling up is certainly achievable. For other founders and investors in the Dutch ecosystem, the combination of European regulation as a tailwind and a growing pool of specialised teams is a defining factor in how this segment will develop in the years ahead.