July 24 (Reuters) - Online security and compliance

management platform Vanta said on Wednesday it had raised $150

million in a fresh funding round led by venture capital firm

Sequoia Capital, giving it a valuation of $2.45 billion.

Companies pursuing artificial intelligence (AI) adoption are

attracting the attention of U.S. venture capital firms after a

near two-year lull driven by high interest rates and a sluggish

exit market for startup investors.

Vanta says it wants to double down on its AI innovation,

eliminate legacy tools in compliance and deepen its global

presence by venturing into the UK and Australia.

The venture capital businesses of banking giants Goldman

Sachs ( GS ) and JPMorgan Chase ( JPM ) also participated in the

round that saw all previous investors returning, bringing the

lifetime raise of the company to $353 million since 2021.

San Francisco-based Vanta raised $50 million in 2021 in a

round led by Sequoia Capital, which also participated in its

fundraise the year after. The company achieved a valuation of

$1.6 billion when it raised $110 million in 2022.

The company has more than 8,000 customers, including

Microsoft-owned developer platform GitHub, hiring platform

SmartRecruiters and database company ZoomInfo ( ZI ).

Vanta, founded in 2018 by CEO Christina Cacioppo, helps its

clients with security monitoring and achieving compliance

certifications at a faster pace through process automation.

"We're investing in Vanta because of their demonstrated

platform approach, starting with automated compliance and

rapidly adding new modules," said Goldman Sachs ( GS ) growth equity

investor Mike Reilly.

Atlassian Ventures, Craft Ventures, CrowdStrike Ventures,

HubSpot Ventures, Workday Ventures and Y Combinator were the

other investors in the funding round.