Governance, Risk, and Compliance software (like Vanta or Drata). These tools manage policies, procedures, and audits.

What are GRC tools?

GRC stands for governance, risk, and compliance. GRC tools are platforms that centralize the management of these three overlapping disciplines:

  • Governance defines the policies, procedures, and organizational structures that guide how security decisions are made.
  • Risk involves identifying, assessing, and managing threats to your organization's information assets.
  • Compliance ensures your organization meets the requirements of frameworks like SOC 2, ISO 27001, HIPAA, and PCI DSS.

In practice, a GRC tool is the system of record for your compliance program. It tracks which controls you have in place, collects evidence that those controls are working, manages your policy library, coordinates audit workflows, and generates the reports auditors need.

For startups, the GRC landscape has shifted significantly. Traditional GRC platforms (like ServiceNow GRC or RSA Archer) were built for large enterprises with dedicated compliance teams. A newer generation of tools, including Vanta, Drata, Sprinto, and Secureframe, was built specifically for startups and growth-stage companies. According to BrightDefense, these platforms focus on automation and integration to reduce the manual effort that makes compliance painful for small teams.

Why GRC tools matter for startups

The GRC tools market has grown rapidly, reaching $70.1 billion in 2025 according to ConductorOne, driven largely by the increasing number of compliance requirements startups face as they sell to enterprise customers.

Here's why GRC tools deserve attention early:

  1. Compliance doesn't manage itself. SOC 2, ISO 27001, and HIPAA each involve dozens of controls, each requiring evidence that they're operating effectively. Without a GRC tool, that evidence lives in spreadsheets, screenshots, and someone's memory. A GRC platform automates evidence collection by pulling data from your existing tools and organizing it against the relevant framework requirements.
  2. Auditors expect organization. When your SOC 2 auditor arrives, they need to verify specific controls with specific evidence. A GRC tool presents that evidence in a structured format that auditors can navigate efficiently. This reduces audit duration, cost, and the number of follow-up questions.
  3. Multiple frameworks, shared controls. Many startups need SOC 2 for U.S. customers, ISO 27001 for international ones, and HIPAA if they handle health data. GRC tools map controls across frameworks so you can satisfy overlapping requirements once instead of duplicating work.
  4. Continuous readiness over audit scrambles. The worst way to handle compliance is to cram evidence-gathering into the weeks before an audit. GRC tools maintain compliance posture continuously, so you're always audit-ready rather than periodically panicking.

How GRC tools work with Fencer

It's important to understand the relationship between GRC tools and security tools like Fencer. GRC tools manage your compliance program. Fencer does the actual security scanning. They complement each other.

A GRC tool tracks that you're supposed to run vulnerability scans. Fencer actually runs the scans. A GRC tool records that you need to monitor cloud configurations. Fencer monitors them and generates findings. The evidence from Fencer's scanning flows into your GRC platform to satisfy the compliance controls it tracks.

How Fencer integrates:

  • Automatic evidence sync. Fencer pushes scan results, finding resolutions, and configuration states directly to your GRC tool (Vanta, Drata, Sprinto, and others). No manual screenshots, no CSV exports, no copy-pasting between dashboards.
  • Control-level mapping. Every Fencer finding maps to the specific SOC 2, ISO 27001, or HIPAA controls it affects. Your GRC tool shows which controls are satisfied by Fencer's evidence and which need attention.
  • Continuous, not periodic. Because Fencer scans continuously, your GRC tool receives fresh evidence every day, not just during audit prep. This keeps your compliance dashboard accurate and your audit trail complete.