Aarhus comet lands big collaboration in Spain

For many small businesses, working with ISO standards is still divided between purchased PDF documents, spreadsheets and internal systems. The Aarhus-based compliance company Formalize wants to change that through an official collaboration with UNE, which represents ISO and IEC in Spain.

The agreement means that companies can access and work with official ISO standards directly in the Formalize platform. Users no longer have to purchase standards separately and manually keep track of documentation and checkpoints across multiple tools.

“ISO standards have traditionally not existed as something that companies work in or with. We are now changing that. The fact that ISO itself will contribute to the work is the strongest validation of our platform that we could have wished for,” says Jakob Lilholm, CEO of Formalize, on the scaleup’s website.

AI to find gaps in compliance

At the same time, Formalize launches the Formalize IQ tool, which uses artificial intelligence to help companies understand and apply the standards.

The tool analyzes the company’s existing compliance setup and identifies gaps in relation to the relevant ISO standard. Because the solution works with the official standards, companies should be able to base the analysis on verified content rather than general or unofficial AI data, according to Formalize.

ISO certifications play an important role for companies that want to supply major customers and public authorities. But the actual work of documenting, implementing and maintaining the standards can be resource-intensive, especially for SMEs without their own compliance teams.

“The way companies use standards needs to keep up with the digital evolution. By integrating our official framework on a platform like Formalize, we ensure that standards remain relevant and useful for modern businesses,” says Pablo A. Corróns Crespí, Director of Intellectual Property and Standards Distribution at UNE.

A step in European scaling

According to the company, Formalize is the first GRC provider in Spain to enter into this type of collaboration with an official ISO organization. GRC covers companies’ work with governance, risk management and compliance.

The collaboration fits into the Aarhus scaleup’s broader European growth strategy. Formalize has raised significant international capital and expanded its presence in several European markets where companies are experiencing increasing demands for documentation, data security and regulatory control.

For Aarhus’ tech community, the agreement shows how regulation can become the starting point for international software growth. As European businesses face more demands, the market for platforms that can translate complex standards and regulations into concrete workflows is growing.