Selling physical products globally requires meeting thousands of local regulations, certifications and documentation requirements. Today, this work is handled manually, often involving consultants, fragmented tools and months of back-and-forth. According to the EU Commission, regulatory compliance is one of the top 3 barriers preventing European companies from exporting to new markets. By automating this process, Complir enables retailers to sell globally without scaling compliance teams.
AI becomes retail’s compliance engine
Copenhagen-based Complir has stepped into this pressure point with €1.7 million in pre-seed funding to build the AI infrastructure modern retailers need. With this funding round, the company has reached a post-money valuation of €6.8 million. The company received €146K as a grant from Innovation Fund Denmark back in January, said Gustav Bang, the co-founder of Complir, to TFN.
The round was led by Vendep Capital, with participation from Likeminded, Plug and Play, F-Log Ventures, and a strong group of business angels from the retail industry and tech startup scene, including former Coop Group CEO Kraen Østergaard Nielsen, JHJ Seed Capital, a Danish early-stage fund with deep SAP and enterprise-integration expertise, Coop Trading chairman and GS1 board member Per Thau, and Neil S. W. Murray, Solo GP at The Nordic Web Ventures and early backer of several of the Nordics’ fastest-growing startups.
The investment allows Complir to accelerate development and expand faster across key European markets. In addition to the expansion, the company will meet its long-term ambition of helping European retailers become world leaders in exporting safe, transparent, and compliant products globally.
Complir already works with several of Scandinavia’s leading retailers, including Flying Tiger Copenhagen, across categories such as toys, textiles, home goods, cosmetics, and electronics. The newly secured funding will deepen product development, expand category coverage and strengthen integrations with the core systems retailers rely on.
Gustav stated, “We aim to become the default compliance infrastructure for global retail. In the coming years, we’ll expand coverage to all major markets, deepen automation across product categories, and grow our integrations so compliance becomes an invisible part of every retailer’s workflow. On a longer timeline, we see Complir evolving into a global infrastructure layer enabling trusted trade between retailers, importers, distributors, and suppliers.”
How was the idea born?
Complir was founded in Copenhagen in 2024 by Gustav Bang, with 10 years in startups, who served as Head of Denmark in Legora, andTine Kühnel, a designer from the Technical University of Denmark and DTU Compute with a background in physical product design and 10+ years building intuitive digital platforms that just make sense. The team also includes Marc Kaa Brejner, an Engineer from the Technical University of Denmark, before Complir worked as a consultant building large-scale system architecture for Danish authorities.
Detailing on the motive behind the idea, Gustav stated, “Complir was born from a clear and growing market need. Retailers increasingly rely on international expansion to meet demand, but the regulatory burden of selling physical products across borders has become so complex that many simply give up. We saw businesses spending months and large budgets navigating compliance instead of focusing on growth. This gap – and the absence of modern, intelligent tools to solve it – was the spark behind Complir.”
What about the diversity?
Complir was founded by Gustav and Tine, a 50/50 gender mix from day one and a shared belief that the best companies are built by diverse teams. He further stated, “Today, we’re 25 per cent women (1/4), and our new hires coming in 1st of January reflect a healthy mix of backgrounds. The team brings together engineering, design and commercial experience, a combination that lets us approach problems from multiple angles and build better products.”
Competition: What makes Complir different?
Talking about competition, Gustav added, “Our primary competition comes from manual compliance consultancies and legacy services. A few niche software tools exist, but none offer automated, end-to-end compliance coverage across product categories and markets in a single platform.”
“Our platform combines domain-specific models with a structured knowledge engine that interprets global product regulations in real time. This means retailers can upload thousands of products and instantly understand what certifications, documentation and compliance steps are required across markets. Unlike traditional compliance solutions, Complir is fully automated, continuously updated and integrates directly into the retailer’s product workflow. This allows us to scale far beyond what manual or consultancy-driven solutions can offer.”
What’s ahead for Complir?
Talking about what the company aims to do in the coming years, Gustav stated, “We aim to become the default compliance infrastructure for global retail. In the coming years we’ll expand coverage to all major markets, deepen automation across product categories, and grow our integrations so compliance becomes an invisible part of every retailer’s workflow. On a longer timeline, we see Complir evolving into a global infrastructure layer enabling trusted trade between retailers, importers, distributors and suppliers.”
A growing responsibility for retailers
New import rules and intense scrutiny on online marketplaces mean the liability for selling safe and legal products increasingly sits with retailers, not regulators or distributors. Companies now need watertight transparency on their product data if they want to scale internationally without exposing themselves to recalls, fines or reputational damage.
Complir’s platform gives compliance and commercial teams the confidence to launch new product lines and enter new regions at pace. Market-access requirements that previously took weeks to validate can now be checked in seconds, allowing retailers to move quickly without compromising safety or governance.
The platform pulls scattered product information from ERP, PIM, PLM and other systems into one unified data layer. Once centralised, AI agents automate critical workflows such as identifying labelling rules, determining required tests, assessing product risk and mapping documentation obligations.
Instead of jumping between spreadsheets and PDF reports, teams get a clear line of sight over every SKU. Risks are flagged automatically, and compliance requirements for different markets are surfaced instantly, removing the long waiting periods that typically stall new product launches.
“What impressed us most is how quickly this team has built something truly valuable inside real customer workflows,” added Artis Bisers from Vendep Capital. “They’ve earned their way deep into organisations by understanding not just the technical challenge, but the data, the processes, and the decisions that underpin product compliance. In a world where the burden of compliance continues to grow, having this level of clarity and trust becomes essential for retailers who want to keep their momentum,” he continues. “We’re excited to partner with the team as they define the future of retail compliance.”
