Optro
AuditBoard renamed: audit, risk and compliance software used by over half the Fortune 500, past $300M of recurring revenue and owned by private equity firm Hg since a $3B+ buyout.
Optro, Mar 9, 2026; Optro, Oct 14, 2025- Valuation
- Over $3B the price Hg agreed to pay in May 2024. No later valuation has been published.
- Raised
- About $44M before the buyout: a $3.6M Series A and a $40M Series B in 2018, led by Battery Ventures.
- Revenue
- $300M+ ARR passed by October 2025, up from $200M in late 2023. It says 7 of the Fortune 10 are customers.
- Watch
- New CEO, two CFOs Raul Villar Jr. became CEO in July 2025; CFOs were named in January and again in September 2026.
- AI
- Agents plus MCP an MCP server since April 2026 and a set of audit, compliance and vendor-risk agents launched October 2026.
- Liquidity
- Owned by Hg no shares trade and no staff equity plan or tender has been published. A future sale or listing is the usual exit.
- Hiring
- 20 → 28 remote listings since Oct 10.
Subscriptions for audit, risk and compliance teams.
Optro sells a cloud platform to internal audit, SOX, risk, infosec and compliance teams. Its eleven products include Controls Management, Autonomous Testing, OpsAudit, RiskOversight, third-party risk (TPRM) and AI Governance, sold with services and support. It does not publish prices or a revenue split.
Optro AI info page, checked Nov 3, 2026- 1Deep in the largest companiesOptro says more than 50% of the Fortune 500 and 7 of the Fortune 10 use it. It had 2,000+ enterprise customers at the time of the Hg deal.Optro, Oct 14, 2025; Hg, May 2024
- 2Built by auditors, with a user communityFounders Daniel Kim (ex-PwC) and Jay Lee (ex-EY) started it as SOXHUB in 2014. Optro cites a community of 9,000+ power users.Optro AI info page; TechCrunch, Aug 2018
- 3Grew without much outside moneyIt raised about $44M before Hg, and Battery says it has been profitable since its 2018 investment. The CEO told Fortune it was cash flow positive over its life.Battery Ventures (undated); Fortune, Feb 16, 2024
- Vanta$4.15Bprivate, Jul 23
- Optro$3.00BBuyout by Hg, May 23
- Drata$2.00Bprivate, Dec 7
Private values are the last reported round; they can be stale. Listed values are market value. Bars start at zero.
Every round, and what its terms give away.
Optro is private, so there is no share price. What its investors paid, and on what terms, is the closest thing to one.
- $3.00B
- latest valuation, Buyout by Hg May 23
- $44M
- raised in all
- $300M
- ARR, as of Oct 14
- 874
- employees, as reported
Cash flow positive over its life, the CEO told Fortune in Feb 2024.
Optro, Oct 14, 2025; LinkedIn, Nov 2026; Accounting Today, 2018- May 23Buyout by Hgat $3.00BLed by Hg (Saturn 3 fund)Price over $3B; Hg Capital Trust alone put in about GBP 87.2M. Battery says the deal closed later in 2024.Hg, May 23, 2024; Hg Capital Trust, May 23, 2024
- Aug 15Series B$40MLed by Battery VenturesIts last equity round. Earlier: a $3.6M Series A in 2017, seed money in 2015 and a strategic stake from Donnelly Financial.TechCrunch, Aug 15, 2018; Accounting Today, Aug 16, 2018
- Down round or flat round?No. There has been no priced round since 2018; Hg bought the company for over $3B in 2024, the only valuation on record.Hg, May 23, 2024Clear
- How much of the company the last deal soldHg agreed to acquire the company, so it holds control. The exact stake and whether founders or Battery kept shares were not disclosed.Hg, May 23, 2024Open
- Time since the last dealAbout 29 months since May 2024. The CEO said in 2024 it did not need cash, and it has made two small purchases since without a new raise.Fortune, Feb 16, 2024Clear
- Debt or unusual termsBuyouts often add debt to the company, but no loan amount or lender for this deal was found in Hg or Optro releases.Hg, May 23, 2024; searched Nov 3, 2026Open
- Who led the last dealHg, a London software investor and a new outside owner. Goldman Sachs advised AuditBoard.Hg, May 23, 2024Clear
- Tender offers or secondary sales for staffNone found. Under private equity ownership, staff equity usually pays out only on a later sale or listing; Optro has published no plan details.searched Nov 3, 2026Open
- Layoffs in the last 12 monthsNo layoff found in news searches or company posts. LinkedIn shows 874 employees, and it opened Singapore and Dubai hubs in 2026.LinkedIn, checked Nov 3, 2026; searched Nov 3, 2026Clear
Clear: checked, nothing found. Flag: found, with the source. Open: could not be checked.
No filing reported; owned by Hg since 2024
What the record says, and what we think it means.
The fact is the source's. The read, in italics, is ours.
- 01Neutral
AuditBoard is now Optro.
Optro, Mar 9, 2026The company renamed itself on March 9, 2026, at the IIA's Great Audit Minds conference. It was SOXHUB until 2017. Its login still runs on an auditboardapp.com address.
Same company, same products. Search for both names when you check reviews, news and former staff.
- 02Neutral
An outside CEO since July 2025.
CPA Practice Advisor, Jul 1, 2025Raul Villar Jr., who ran Paycor until its $4.1B sale to Paychex, replaced Scott Arnold in a planned handover. Hg welcomed the pick.
Owners often bring in a CEO who has sold a company before. It can signal Hg is preparing an exit.
- 03Watch
Two CFO hires in eight months.
Optro, Sep 14, 2026; Optro, Jan 20, 2026Hugo Doetsch, who worked on Ping Identity's IPO, was named CFO on January 20, 2026. Tim Daniels, ex-Quickbase CFO, was named CFO on September 14, 2026. The company did not explain the change.
Fast finance turnover is worth asking about in interviews. Both hires have sale or IPO experience.
- 04Neutral
Its base has moved to San Francisco.
LinkedIn, checked Nov 3, 2026; Optro, Sep 14, 2026LinkedIn lists headquarters at 316 Bush Street, San Francisco, and its September 2026 release is datelined there. Earlier releases came from Los Angeles; the company grew up in Cerritos, California.
Older listings still say Cerritos or Los Angeles. Check each posting for the office it is tied to.
- 05Good
Bought an AI startup for SOX testing.
CPA Practice Advisor, May 8, 2026On May 6, 2026 Optro bought Midship, a Y Combinator company founded in 2024 that raised a $4.15M seed. Terms were not disclosed; its founders joined Optro's product team.
A small buy to speed up its AI testing product, not a big bet.
- 06Neutral
Added FairNow for AI governance.
Help Net Security, Oct 23, 2025In October 2025 it agreed to buy FairNow, which keeps a registry of a company's AI systems and checks them against rules. Price not disclosed.
Two tuck-in deals in seven months. Expect more as it widens its product line.
- 07Good
Expanding outside the US.
Optro, Oct 6, 2026; Optro, Oct 14, 2025; Ashby board, Nov 3, 2026It entered Germany in 2025, opened a Singapore hub in June 2026 and a Dubai hub in October 2026. Current postings include roles in Japan, Poland and London.
More non-US roles are likely. The London sales role we saw asks for 2 to 3 office days a week.
- 08Good
A public customer result for its agents.
Optro, Oct 14, 2026Optro says Reddit's audit team automated 175 controls, over 40% of its SOX scope, in three months and cut test time per control by about 60%.
A company-reported case study, but a named public customer. It supports the agent push.
Sales is paid 5% under market.
We save every company's roles, pay by team and level, AI share and churn every day, so each month this page can say more. Sparklines use their own scale.
Can AI agents do business with Optro?
We checked the agent payment programs, developer docs and site rules an AI assistant would meet.
Open to agents. MCP server, own agents, and an llms.txt that allows answers but forbids training.
Still Remote read- YesAn MCP server agents can callLaunched April 28, 2026. It lets a customer's chosen AI model read live Optro data, limited to what that user is already allowed to see. Supported AI clients are not named.Optro, Apr 28, 2026
- YesIts own AI agentsAutonomous Testing plus agents for stakeholder management, risk scoring, compliance, vendor risk and AI governance, launched October 14, 2026. AI Discovery is in preview for 2027.Optro, Oct 14, 2026
- YesSite AI tools can readoptro.ai/llms.txt (updated September 2026) allows retrieval and short excerpts with attribution, but says the content may not be used for model training.optro.ai/llms.txt, checked Nov 3, 2026
- MixedLets AI crawlers read its siterobots.txt names GPTBot, CCBot, Google-Extended, PerplexityBot, Claude-Web and ClaudeBot, but only blocks /corp/ and /download/, the same as for everyone. That does not match the training ban stated in llms.txt.optro.ai/robots.txt, checked Nov 3, 2026
- YesA fact page written for AI toolsoptro.ai/ai-info-for-llms lists its history, ownership by Hg, products and named customers in plain text.checked Nov 3, 2026
Where Optro puts AI to work.
- 1Uses AI tools to market itselfProfound, an AI search vendor, says Optro used its agents after the rename to track the new brand in ChatGPT and Google AI answers and to update 31 articles in a week. Profound reports a 70% rise in citation share.Profound customer story (undated)
- 2Buys AI teams instead of only buildingMidship's three founders joined Optro's product team in May 2026 to build agentic SOX testing into Controls Management.CPA Practice Advisor, May 8, 2026
More listings than on Sep 7, led by sales.
What has to be true for $3 billion to hold?
The starting revenue is Optro's own reported figure. A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
At 10x, Optro needs $300 million of revenue to be worth $3 billion. Your world gets there with $588 million, so the next round likely prices above the last.
$100,000 of equity valued at the $3.00B Buyout by Hg price would be worth about $196,000 on paper in this world, before dilution from new rounds, taxes and vesting. Private shares only turn into cash at a sale, an IPO or a tender offer.
A way to think, not a forecast, and not investment advice.
Hg, May 23, 2024; Optro, Oct 14, 2025The signals, and which way they push.
- TailwindAudit teams want testing done by AI.
Optro says Reddit moved past 75% of its SOX controls to agent testing, and Autonomous Testing is used by 50+ public companies.
- TailwindNew AI rules create new compliance work.
Buying FairNow gave it an AI governance product just as companies start tracking AI systems against regulations.
- TailwindRevenue keeps climbing.
ARR went from $200M in late 2023 to over $300M by October 2025, which the company calls accelerating growth.
- HeadwindWell funded rivals with AI too.
Vanta was valued at $4.15B in 2025, and big platforms like ServiceNow and Workiva sell risk and controls tools.
Where Optro ends up, if we had to bet.
Our calls, not facts. Each one is tied to something that already happened, so you can judge the reasoning.
- 1
Hg sells Optro or takes it public by 2031.
Likely 72%ExitPrivate equity owners usually exit within five to seven years, and Hg bought in 2024. Recent CEO and CFO hires have sale and IPO experience.
Optro, Sep 14, 2026; Hg, May 2024 - 2
Optro lists on a US exchange by 2031 rather than being sold to another owner.
Coin flip 50%IPOIt has over $300M of ARR and a history of positive cash flow. But a sale to another firm or a larger software company is just as common for Hg holdings.
Optro, Oct 14, 2025; Fortune, Feb 2024 - 3
Optro buys several more small AI and risk startups.
Likely 72%M&AIt bought FairNow in 2025 and Midship in 2026. Both were small teams folded into existing products.
CPA Practice Advisor, May 2026; Help Net Security, Oct 2025 - 4
Optro passes $600M of ARR by 2031.
Coin flip 50%RevenueIt added about $100M of ARR in under two years to late 2025. Keeping that pace means agent products and new regions must add real revenue.
Optro, Oct 14, 2025 - 5
Most SOX control testing in Optro accounts is done by its agents, with people reviewing.
Likely 72%AIReddit already runs over 75% of its SOX controls through agent testing. Optro is building its whole product line around agents.
Optro, Oct 14, 2026
Read by the Still Remote research agent on November 4, 2026 from the sources linked on this page. Facts and scenarios only, not investment advice.