Founder Q&A: Lessons Alabama’s Auditocity CEO Learned While Raising a $2M Seed Round

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When we talked to Gia Wiggins, PhD., CEO of Alabama-based Auditocity, this time last year, she talked to us about her journey from the corporate world to HRTech founder.

Wiggins recently secured a $2 million seed round from California-based Halogen Ventures, Techstars, Innovate Alabama, and angel investors Barkin Holdings, and Merchants Transfer Company. That funding will help the platform expand across the country while increasing its AI capabilities with the ultimate goal of “[helping] HR professionals and leaders see what’s happening in real time and to catch issues early.”

Following the funding round, Wiggins answered a few of our questions about the fundraising process and what’s next for Auditocity.

Read through the founder Q&A here:

Question: How would you describe the fundraising journey? When did you first start opening up fundraising conversations?

Our fundraising journey has been very deliberate. Auditocity was never built around raising capital. It was built around solving a real, persistent problem I saw every day in my HR and consulting career. For more than two decades, I watched organizations struggle to stay compliant while trying to build strong, people-centered workplaces. The tools on the market were either too limited or too complex, leaving leaders without the clarity they needed to make confident decisions.

I wanted to change that. We spent the first phase of Auditocity focused entirely on validation. We tested, refined, and proved that our auditing platform could simplify compliance and help companies meet both HR requirements with confidence. Once we had measurable success with clients and partnerships with major HCM providers, we started opening fundraising conversations in early 2024. By then, we were not asking people to believe in a vision. We were inviting them to join a proven, scalable solution. For us, fundraising is not about chasing capital. It is about aligning with investors who share our vision that HR compliance can be intelligent, data-driven, and approachable for every organization.

Question: Since we connected last year, how has your team changed?

Since we last connected, the team behind Auditocity has experienced tremendous growth and evolution. What began as a small, focused group of HR experts and technologists has expanded into a dynamic, multidisciplinary team. We’ve brought in new talent across AI engineering, product development, and client support, all with one shared goal: to make HR audits smarter, more intuitive, and more impactful.

Our technical capabilities have deepened significantly. We’ve expanded our AI team to enhance automation, pattern recognition, and predictive analytics within the platform. At the same time, we’ve reinforced our enterprise-level support systems to better serve our growing client base across industries. Whether it's scaling with larger clients or supporting consultants using Auditocity in their own service models, our infrastructure is built for flexibility and performance.

Our culture hasn’t changed. We remain rooted in empathy, excellence, and integrity. Everyone on our team whether they've been here since the beginning or recently joined understands that our mission goes beyond software. Auditocity was born from real-world HR challenges, and that perspective continues to guide every decision we make. We don’t just build tools; we help organizations see clearly, act confidently, and lead effectively.

As we’ve grown, this balance between seasoned HR insight and fresh technical innovation has made us stronger. We’re moving faster, scaling smarter, and delivering more value—without compromising on the values that got us here: clarity, trust, and a deep belief that technology should simplify people’s work, not complicate it.

Question: I see you have added many new AI features to your product. What is the hardest part about incorporating AI into customer-facing products?

The hardest part of incorporating AI into HR technology is not the coding or the algorithms. It is the responsibility that comes with it. HR data represents people’s lives and livelihoods. That means our AI cannot just be powerful. It has to be precise, transparent, and trustworthy.

We have designed our AI to support professional judgment, not replace it. The platform identifies compliance risks across both federal and state regulations, analyzes patterns, and recommends best practices, but it always keeps the human in control. One of the biggest challenges has been balancing automation with empathy. HR decisions require context and compassion. Our AI tools are designed to make that work easier and more accurate, while still honoring the human element behind every policy and process.

At Auditocity, we see AI as a partner for HR professionals. It helps them audit faster, see patterns sooner, and make informed choices that protect their organizations and their people. Incorporating AI is not about removing the human touch. It is about amplifying it through clarity, compliance, and confidence.