Laika’s 2021 Year in Review

2021 was a banner year for Laika. Our talented team of employees contributed to phenomenal company growth and allowed us to achieve milestones at a rapid rate. Some highlights include raising our Series B, launching and announcing Laika+, growing our team, and our entire team coming together for the first time in NYC.

These achievements would not have been possible without a wonderfully collaborative client base and the dedicated efforts of our Customer Experience team. We look forward to the opportunity to continue to serve our clients and to build our brand into the leading force in the sector.

Looking back at Laika’s accomplishments

We have certainly accomplished a lot this past year to maintain our position at the forefront of the industry.

Our first conference sponsorship: SaaStr!

Our first experience at SaaStr was a tremendous success. We established a footprint in the marketplace by creating brand awareness and initiating customer relationships. It proved to be valuable and we are excited about the opportunity to return in the future.

Raised a Series B

One of the most thrilling milestones was our $35 million Series B led by JPMorgan. For a company of our stature, this raise was both indicative of the confidence behind the company as well as our strong reputation and up and coming potential. We will always look back on this as the first step toward our long term success.

Announced OFDSS, a new security standard

Laika, along with a consortium of financial technology and security compliance companies, announced the Open Finance Data Security Standard (OFDSS). The proposed framework of requirements addresses common security risks encountered by growing financial technology companies handling sensitive information.

Relaunched our website

As we scale, we work to ensure that our marketing website reflects our brand mission and growing solution stack. We’re looking forward to making more changes in 2022!

Laika Compliance

We introduced Laika Compliance featuring the highest quality IT audit reports completed in 60% less time than the industry standard. This landmark announcement helped us stand out among competitors and further solidified our full service capabilities. 

Product Updates

We made significant improvements to our product line and incorporated new features.

Introduced Laika+

We’re happy to have finally released our Laika+ service, which includes an in-app audit experience for our customers. 

Onboarding experience

We optimized our onboarding experience for our customers to ensure they are able to build their compliance program as quickly and smoothly as possible.

• Added 23 integrations
• Built ~4000 monitors across organizations
• Leveraged evidence generated from integrations and monitors for streamlined in-app audit experience

Added 5X headcount for Product, Design, and Engineering 

Our solution is growing very quickly and we increased staff to support these growths. We’re proud to be recognized on Hired’s 2021 List of Top Employers Winning Tech Talent!

Our teams hired:

• 6 Product Managers
• 4 Designers 
• 1 Technical Writer
• 2 Product Support
• 1 Program Manager
• 2 Project Managers

Updates from our Experts

Laika understands the value-add in providing experts to guide customers through the compliance minefield, and we built a robust team to support customers in a variety of different frameworks.

• Added Jay (Head of Healthcare Programs), Andrew (Head of Cyber & Federal Programs), and Collin (ISO expert) to the team
• Grew CX team by 13
• Laika Compliance flawlessly completed 34 audits for our Laika+ customers
• Our CX team built 83 programs through to a completed audit

People

Our company benefited from new additions to each team who brought their unique specialized expertise and enthusiasm.

Our growing team

We surpassed 100 full-time employees! This reflects both our desire to provide the finest customer support team in the industry as well as to dedicate experts to both develop and innovate our software. We are excited to be able to assemble such a talented and dedicated team who continually strive to make Laika both a top flight company and a great place to work. 

• 11 countries
• 96 FTE added

We’re also proud to say that only 2 Laika employees resigned this year, resulting in a 1.5% attrition rate. 

Corporate culture

As we grow, we maintain a corporate culture focused on diversity and inclusion in the workplace, sensitive to the needs of all Laika employees. 

Our founders have instilled their core values to make Laika a desirable, comfortable, and fun place to work. As a result, we are able to both maintain and attract highly competent employees who truly enjoy what they do.

Summer and holiday party

We celebrated these achievements in person twice this year. The first time was at a summer get-together and the second at a wonderful holiday party in New York City. It was great to finally have everyone together after working remotely during this challenging year.

Continued to learn and share our knowledge

We expanded our online presence by participating in a series of internal and external webinars, panels, and podcasts. Our team enjoyed the opportunity to contribute our expertise to the programs and meet new people!

Come join us on our journey to help businesses build, audit, and maintain high quality compliance programs. We’re hiring!