BITE Data Raises $3M to Automate Global Trade Compliance with AI

Founded by former U.S. customs and supply-chain officers, the Virginia-based startup is bringing AI to one of the world’s most complex, overlooked business functions: trade compliance.

The Compliance Bottleneck in Global Trade

Global trade compliance remains one of the most manual, error-prone layers of modern supply chains. Every product that crosses a border must comply with a dense web of regulations: tariffs, sanctions, restricted parties, export controls and country-of-origin rules that vary by jurisdiction and change constantly. For multinational companies, compliance can consume hundreds of staff hours each week and expose them to multi-million-dollar penalties if documentation fails to align with current trade laws.

This combination of volume, complexity and liability has made compliance ripe for disruption. Yet few startups have taken on the challenge at its technical core until BITE Data, an AI-native SaaS company from Leesburg, Virginia, stepped in with a different approach.

Meet BITE Data: Founders, Mission and Product Vision

Founded in 2023 by Thariq Kara and Anne Riitho, BITE Data builds automation software designed to help global trade teams manage compliance workflows with precision and transparency. The founders bring rare insider expertise to the table: Kara previously served in a senior technical role in the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while Riitho led supply-chain investigations for multiple U.S. federal agencies. That dual background, regulatory enforcement and operational risk forms the foundation for BITE’s technology and product strategy.

As the company describes it, BITE Data’s mission is to replace outdated manual processes with AI-driven intelligence that can interpret complex trade documentation, map it to evolving legal frameworks and flag potential violations before they become costly issues. Their SaaS platform integrates AI into the everyday workflow of trade professionals, from trade classification and tariff mapping to sanctions screening and audit reporting. The system continuously learns from new regulatory data, enabling faster, more accurate compliance checks without relying on armies of analysts.

Product Snapshot: AI for Tariffs, Sanctions and Supply-Chain Risk

BITE Data positions itself as a modern compliance co-pilot, built for teams handling international logistics, procurement and regulatory reporting. Its software uses large language models and proprietary data pipelines to perform several key functions:

• Automated Classification: Parsing shipment data, invoices and product catalogs to generate precise Harmonized System (HS) codes for tariff calculations.
• Sanctions & Denied-Party Screening: Cross-checking suppliers, partners and destinations against global restricted-party lists in real time.
• Risk & Audit Analysis: Producing evidence trails and audit-ready summaries that link every compliance action to source documentation.
• Predictive Alerts: Flagging potential violations or duty overpayments before shipment, using AI-based pattern recognition.

The result is a workflow designed for speed and accountability, critical attributes in a world where a single compliance error can delay shipments, damage brand reputation or trigger regulatory fines.

Funding Round Details & Investor Signal

In November 2025, BITE Data announced that it had raised $2.5 million in Series Seed funding, led by Las Olas Venture Capital (LOVC), a Fort Lauderdale–based investor known for backing early-stage B2B SaaS and AI startups across the Eastern United States. The round included participation from New Dominion Angels and Blue Impact Venture Capital, building on an earlier $500,000 pre-seed led by Techstars and Refashiond Ventures. Combined, the startup’s total funding now stands at $3 million.

According to LOVC’s Dean Hatton, the firm was drawn to BITE’s rare blend of technical and regulatory depth. “Thariq and Anne bring unmatched regulatory and technical expertise and their AI-driven platform is transforming how companies manage compliance risk and cross-border operations,” Hatton noted in the company’s funding announcement.

BITE CEO Thariq Kara emphasized that the investment would help the company expand its engineering and sales teams while deepening product capabilities. “Global trade is in huge flux and we want to provide useful, efficient automation tools to the industry that build on the advancements in AI as well,” he said.

As geopolitical pressures reshape trade, automation tools like BITE’s are increasingly viewed as essential infrastructure.

Why Now: Geopolitics, Regulation, and Automation Demand ?

BITE’s timing aligns with a volatile decade in global commerce. The use of tariffs, export bans and economic sanctions as geopolitical levers has surged since 2020. According to the Peterson Institute for International Economics, the number of active trade restrictions has more than doubled in the past five years. This volatility is driving a new wave of investment in AI-enabled trade compliance, a niche market expected to exceed $2 billion globally by 2030, according to MarketsandMarkets data. Companies need real-time visibility into supply-chain risks and governments are enforcing compliance with increasing stringency.

BITE’s approach: blending generative AI, structured data processing and deep regulatory understanding, addresses the growing gap between regulatory complexity and corporate capacity. The startup’s founders often describe their mission as “building automation that understands the rules, not just the data.”

What’s Next for BITE Data ?

With new capital in hand, BITE Data plans to scale its engineering team and expand its product suite beyond import/export workflows. The company aims to add features for supply-chain traceability, environmental compliance and AI-driven anomaly detection.

Initial enterprise adoption has come from mid-sized manufacturers and logistics providers seeking to digitize paper-based processes. The BITE Data’s modular pricing suggests a strategy focused on both accessibility for small teams and scalability for large enterprises.

As BITE builds traction in the US, the founders are also eyeing global expansion, particularly in markets with high regulatory complexity, such as the European Union and Southeast Asia, where import/export documentation remains fragmented across agencies and systems.

Final Thoughts: Automating the Overlooked Layer of Global Trade

Trade compliance rarely makes headlines, yet it sits at the core of global economic stability. Each cross-border transaction passes through dozens of regulatory filters and one misstep can mean shipment delays, fines or reputational loss.

BITE Data’s emergence highlights how AI is moving beyond consumer and creative applications into hard, technical domains that quietly underpin global commerce. For compliance officers, the shift could be transformative, turning documentation review and regulatory analysis from bottlenecks into automated, intelligent processes.

By fusing AI precision with human domain knowledge, BITE is building infrastructure for a world where compliance is no longer reactive but proactive and where AI becomes not just a tool, but a trusted partner in keeping global trade flowing.