Dili closed a $15 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures, lifting its total capital to $21.7 million to scale AI driven compliance automation for federally funded U.S. infrastructure and energy projects.
Dili raised a $15 million Series A led by Khosla Ventures, bringing total funding to $21.7 million. The round included participation from Allianz, Rebel Fund, Brick and Mortar Ventures’ Darren Bechtel, and Y Combinator’s Garry Tan. It follows a $6.7 million seed. Dili (YC S23) is a New York-based AI native compliance platform focused on the “built world”, energy, infrastructure, construction, data centers, and advanced manufacturing, particularly projects receiving federal funding.
What is Dili?
Founded in 2023 by Anand Chaturvedi (CEO) and Brian Fernandez (CTO), both former Coinbase colleagues, Dili evolved from earlier work on AI driven due diligence for private markets into specialized compliance automation for high stakes capital projects. Chaturvedi previously built products at Coinbase linked to over $50 million in revenue, conducted machine learning research at Apple, and was a Kleiner Perkins Fellow. Fernandez led engineering for core retail infrastructure at Coinbase. The team includes compliance veterans with Department of Labor and EPC experience.
The platform targets complex, overlapping regulations such as Davis-Bacon prevailing wage rules, Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) requirements for clean energy projects, certified payroll (WH-347 and state forms), apprenticeship ratios, and related OSHA/EPA standards. Non compliance risks multimillion dollar fines, clawbacks, lost tax credits (e.g., ITC/PTC), and project delays.
What is Dili’s technology?
Dili positions itself as the operating system for federally funded project compliance. Key capabilities include:
- Automated certified payroll ingestion and review (PDF, Excel, CSV, multi format).
- Real time wage determination via SAM.gov integration, trade classification, fringe benefit validation, and underpayment detection.
- Apprenticeship ratio and RAPIDS certification tracking.
- AI powered audit engine that reviews 100% of data (versus traditional Big Four sampling of ~10%).
- Subcontractor management, look back assessments on historical data, ongoing monitoring, and one click audit ready reports.
- Integrations with payroll systems (e.g., ADP, Acumatica) and project tools, plus an open API.
Architecture deliberately limits large language models to the data extraction/structuring layer. A deterministic rules engine then applies static compliance logic, aiming to eliminate LLM “fuzziness” in final decisions. This reduces payroll review from 7+ hours to under 5 minutes per project per week.
The company offers both pure software (in-house use by customers) and full service outsourced compliance monitoring. Roughly half of current deployments are each model, with leadership expecting a gradual shift toward self serve software as AI matures.
As of the funding announcement:
- Active across ~700 projects (manufacturing facilities, data centers, community solar, battery storage, etc.).
- Powering an estimated $4 billion in project spend.
- 500%+ growth in the six months preceding the Series A.
- Processed >$1.4 billion in gross wages, ~5.2 million labor hours, nearly 16,000 certified payroll reports, and hundreds of thousands of time entries.
- Covered ~18,000 workers.
- Protected >$1 billion in funding and tax credits.
- Identified or prevented >$50 million in fines and clawbacks (including one instance of $6 million in potential IRS exposure caught via look back).
- Reported 158% ROI on fines avoided alone and 48x faster review cycles.
- Customers include EDF, Radiance, Heelstone, and Borea, plus Fortune 500 builders, EPCs, developers, and tax equity investors.
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Website metrics align closely, citing $1B+ in funding protected, 700+ projects, and strong compliance scores across prevailing wage, apprenticeship, and certified payroll.
Proceeds will fund hiring in engineering, product, and go to market. The company plans to expand beyond core prevailing wage/apprenticeship automation into broader real time audit, waste detection, and professional services displacement, directly challenging traditional Big Four sampling based models that deliver findings every six months and take 1–2 years to close engagements. Dili emphasizes continuous, 100% coverage with real time alerts.
The raise coincides with a major U.S. infrastructure and clean energy buildout driven by the IRA, CHIPS Act, Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and AI related data center/power demand. These projects often carry strict labor compliance conditions that unlock billions in funding and tax credits. Manual processes (spreadsheets, email, periodic sampling) create material risk. Dili’s combination of AI extraction + deterministic enforcement, dual software/services model, and domain expertise differentiates it within the broader “AI for compliance” category.
Investor backing is notable: Khosla Ventures (Vinod Khosla publicly endorsed the real time assurance layer for high stakes capital projects), strategic participation from Allianz, construction focused Brick and Mortar Ventures, and continued Y Combinator support via Garry Tan. PitchBook lists ~29 employees and 23 total investors historically.
The $15M Series A validates rapid product market fit in a high stakes, regulation heavy niche fueled by secular infrastructure spending. The dual model traction, measurable risk reduction ($50M+ prevented liabilities, $1B+ protected capital), and expansion roadmap position Dili to capture a larger share of compliance and audit workflows traditionally handled by consulting firms.
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