OneTrust

OneTrust builds governance software that enterprises use to manage how data and artificial intelligence are used inside their organisations. Founded in Atlanta in 2016 by Kabir Barday, the company started as a compliance tool for the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation and California's Consumer Privacy Act, automating the consent banners, data-subject request handling and records of processing that those laws made mandatory.

From that base it expanded into adjacent control functions: data discovery and mapping, third-party and vendor risk assessment, ethics and compliance reporting, and, since 2024, governance of AI models and agents. The company markets the combined product as the AI-Ready Governance Platform, and in March 2026 added runtime monitoring and guardrail enforcement across models, agents and data platforms including Azure, AWS, Databricks and Google Vertex.

Growth was fastest between 2019 and 2021, when four financings in under two years took the valuation from $1.3 billion to $5.3 billion and headcount past 1,500. That expansion reversed in June 2022, when OneTrust cut roughly 950 jobs, about a quarter of its workforce, and refocused on profitability. It has since said it operates with positive free cash flow, passed $400 million of annual recurring revenue by mid-2023 and expected to exceed $500 million during 2024.

The company reported more than 14,000 customers and 75% of the Fortune 100 in May 2024, and now describes itself as trusted by over half of the Fortune 500, with roughly 2,000 employees across 13 offices. Governance changed substantially over the same period: the founding Dabbiere and Marshall investors left the board in 2023, independent directors were added from 2024, and in February 2026 Barday handed the chief executive role to John Heyman and moved to an advisory board seat.

OneTrust remains privately held. Its last disclosed primary financing was a $150 million round in July 2023 at a $4.5 billion valuation, a markdown from the $5.3 billion it carried in 2021, and reporting in late 2025 placed it in discussions about a private-equity transaction rather than a public listing.