Besso, a Bern-based startup that helps companies manage the complexity of international trade regulations, has secured €4.29 million (CHF 4 million) in funding.
The funding came from a single large European family office, which opted to remain anonymous. This is a departure from traditional early-stage funding rounds, which have multiple backers, and the company says the funding raised from a single long-term investor was deliberate.
“We have always been very deliberate about building Besso around real customer demand rather than funding milestones. The traction we are seeing now tells us that the time is right to invest more aggressively in growth. Having one long-term investor take the entire round gives us both the resources and the focus to do exactly that,” said Philip Sieber-Gasser, founder and CEO of Besso.
Founded and headquartered in Bern, Switzerland, Besso helps multinational corporations turn the growing complexity of international trade regulation into a source of competitive advantage. It has built an AI platform that continuously monitors over 1,250 trade regulations and tariff schedules across global corridors, automatically identifying where companies are overpaying on duties and offering them opportunities to recover costs through preferential tariff rates and free trade agreement (FTA) eligibility.
According to the company, global tariff teams miss out on preferential tariff rates on around 30% of eligible shipments. This reportedly costs mid-size importers between $2 million and $15 million annually. In addition to cost, these trade teams are also grappling with more than 7,000 regulatory changes every week across major trade corridors, a figure that has grown due to geopolitics and tariff volatility.
Besso’s AI platform replaces the manual, error-prone processes reliant on spreadsheets, PDFs, and consultancy dependency that most companies currently use to manage their requirements. Besso has already built a strong roster of global clients, including Danone, Unilever, AB-InBev, BASF, Coca-Cola, Heineken, Philip Morris International and Syngenta. The company says additional Fortune 500 companies recently joined the platform.
Alongside its strong client base, the company has built a team with expertise in legal research and is supported by academic partners including the Geneva Graduate Institute, the World Trade Institute, and ETH Zurich. Its advisory board includes Jean-Daniel Gerber, a former Swiss Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, along with other leading trade law academics and AI specialists.
The company, a Venture Leaders alumnus, plans to use the funding to increase its headcount, scale capacity to serve a rapidly growing multinational customer base, and advance its technology platform through continued investment in product development and R&D.
“This is an important milestone for us, but the funding itself is not the destination. What matters is what it enables us to build from here,” added Sieber-Gasser.
With geopolitical uncertainty and shifting tariff regimes reordering the global supply chains, the demand for intelligent trade compliance tools is surging with NMSC forecasting the AI trade compliance market to reach €9.84 billion ($11.05 billion) by 2035, expanding at a 21.07% CAGR. Besso is positioning itself as the platform of record for multinationals looking to reduce trade-related costs and build more resilient supply chains.