Pennant Raises $5M in Seed Funding to Automate Proxy

AI- native corporate governance software company Pennant has raised a $5 million seed round led by Urban Innovation Fund, with Y Combinator participating. 

Ryan Nowicki Stewart and Thomas Taylor, the company’s founders, said they will use the money to build what they call a world model for corporate governance. 

Pennant’s main goal is to connect institutional research, voting policies, and past decisions to help investors exercise independent judgment on proxy votes. For companies and law firms, it analyses shareholder bases and flags voting risk ahead of annual meetings. 

The company is already live with paying customers, including a major US public pension plan, a top AmLaw 100 firm, and government advisers. 

Other angel investors from Marvell, Legal & General, OpenAI, Kirkland & Ellis, and NVIDIA also joined the round.

Many large investors are thinking about how they’ll handle proxy voting. JPMorgan has shifted from external proxy advisers towards an internal AI-supported process, and Wells Fargo is building more in-house capability. 

Advisers are changing too. Glass Lewis plans to use AI for more flexible voting options starting in 2027. At the same time, investors are using different strategies. This creates a big need for tools that help people do research faster without giving up their own rules and policies.

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The stakes are very high. To win over big organizations, Pennant must prove its analysis is trustworthy and clearly traceable. That way, those organizations can keep control of their choices and have a clear paper trail showing how they made them. 

At $5 million, this is a big funding round for an early-stage startup. It shows investors are excited about using AI to handle behind-the-scenes corporate governance. As big organizations start handling proxy work in-house, startups that act as a research helper—rather than making the final call—have an easier way into strict, high-trust industries.