Via coinbase.com
Dili, founded by three former Coinbase employees, has protected over $1 billion in funding and tax credits across 700+ projects using AI-driven compliance automation.
A trio of former Coinbase employees just raised $22 million to solve one of the least glamorous but most expensive problems in America’s infrastructure boom: making sure everyone follows the rules.
Dili, an AI-driven compliance automation platform, closed its Series A round led by Khosla Ventures, with participation from Allianz, Rebel Fund, Brick and Mortar Ventures’ Darren Bechtel, and Y Combinator’s Garry Tan. The company automates prevailing wage and apprenticeship (PWA) compliance for engineering, procurement, and construction firms working on federally incentivized projects.
From crypto to compliance #
Co-founders Stephanie Song, Brian Fernandez, and Anand Chaturvedi all cut their teeth at Coinbase. They initially launched Dili through Y Combinator’s S23 batch as an AI-powered due diligence tool for private equity, the kind of platform that could chew through data rooms and spit out investment insights.
Then they spotted a bigger opportunity. The Inflation Reduction Act created massive tax incentives for clean energy and infrastructure projects, including a 30% Investment Tax Credit. But accessing those credits requires airtight compliance with federal wage and apprenticeship standards. Mess up the paperwork, and the government claws back the money.
In English: billions of dollars in tax credits are sitting on the table, but companies need to prove they’re paying workers correctly and training apprentices at the right ratios. That’s a paperwork nightmare for construction firms managing hundreds of subcontractors across dozens of job sites. Dili’s AI automates the payroll validation and audit trails that keep those credits safe.
The $1 billion compliance moat #
Dili’s traction numbers make the case for why investors are paying attention. The platform has protected over $1 billion in funding and tax credits across more than 700 projects. For a startup that only went through Y Combinator in summer 2023, that’s a fast ramp.
The customer base consists primarily of EPC firms and developers in the energy and infrastructure sectors. These companies need to validate payroll data against SAM.gov, the federal government’s system for award management, to ensure compliance with prevailing wage requirements. Doing this manually across large-scale projects is slow, error-prone, and expensive. Doing it wrong can cost a project its entire tax credit allocation.
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