Start-up led by former US customs personnel is building global trade automation tools to support a legacy industry.
LEESBURG, Va. – BITE Data Corporation, an AI-native SaaS company providing global trade compliance solutions, today announced that they have closed a Series Seed round in the amount of $2.5m, led by Las Olas Venture Capital (LOVC).
Additional capital investment came from New Dominion Angels and Blue Impact Venture Capital. This Series Seed round builds on BITE’s Pre-seed round of $500,000, closed in June of this year, with major contributions from Techstars and Refashiond Ventures, bringing total funding to $3m across both rounds.
Las Olas Venture Capital (LOVC) is an early-stage venture capital firm that invests in B2B software with a focus on vertical SaaS and AI startups across the Eastern United States. The firm backs founding teams building software and AI platforms that modernize outdated business workflows delivering measurable improvements in ROI efficiency and productivity. With decades of operating experience LOVC takes an active and collaborative approach working hands-on with founders to amplify their impact and transform industries.
“We’re really excited about this investment, and super thankful for the confidence LOVC and the other investors have placed in our vision,” BITE CEO, Thariq Kara said. “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.
“We’re thrilled to back BITE as they modernize a critical often-overlooked function in global trade” said Dean Hatton of Las Olas Venture Capital. “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. BITE’s technology brings speed, accuracy and accountability to an area that has long relied on manual processes, and we’re excited to support them as they scale their impact across industries.”
BITE Data is a Leesburg, VA-based start-up, founded in 2023 by Thariq Kara and Anne Riitho. Both have a strong background in global trade and customs enforcement, with Thariq previously holding a senior technical role at US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while Anne led supply chain investigations for 3 letter US agencies.
As geo-political tensions increase – including the use of tariffs and sanctions as coercion tools – BITE’s focus on building accurate, AI-powered tools to automate global trade compliance tasks for both import and export compliance workflows is very timely. Initial goals with the venture-backed funding will be to grow the engineering team and build out a solid sales team to drive growth.
For more on the platform and team please visit https://bitedata.io.
