The Austin privacy platform that will pay your fine if its software lets you down.
A single white "O" on a screen somewhere in Austin, quietly logging the moment you clicked "Accept All." It happens a billion times a month. Nobody notices - which is exactly the point.
Here is a strange thing to put in a software contract: if you use our product and still get fined, we will pay the fine. Up to $500,000. Most SaaS companies sell you a tool and wish you luck. Osano, the data-privacy platform headquartered in Austin, Texas, sells you a tool and offers to write the check.
This is either reckless or extremely clever, and once you look closely it is clearly the second one. The scariest thing about privacy law is not the size of the fine - it is that no general counsel can tell the board exactly what a GDPR violation will cost. The risk just sits there, unpriceable, generating anxiety. Osano's pitch is to convert that unknowable number into a known one: zero, plus a monthly subscription. That is not a gimmick. That is the whole product. Osano is in the business of selling certainty to people who are professionally terrified of uncertainty.
To make a promise like that, you have to actually do the work. Osano's platform tracks more than 95 privacy laws across dozens of jurisdictions and keeps a global team of privacy experts watching for changes. When California amends something, when the EU issues new guidance, when a new state law appears, the platform has to update - not eventually, but continuously - because the guarantee only holds if the software is right. The "No Fines, No Penalties" pledge is not marketing. It is an operating discipline the company imposed on itself.
The core of what Osano does is unglamorous and enormous. Every time you visit a website and a little banner asks whether you accept cookies, something has to record your answer - timestamp it, store it, and be able to prove, later, to a regulator, that you were asked and what you said. Multiply that by every website, every visitor, every jurisdiction with its own rules. Osano handles more than a billion of these consent events every month. It is invisible plumbing for a law almost nobody reads.
With a single JavaScript tag, a company can deploy localized cookie banners in more than 45 languages, block trackers that fire before a visitor has agreed, and log every consent action into a dashboard an auditor can actually open. Around that sits the rest of the program: automated handling of data-subject access requests, data mapping to find where personal information lives, privacy assessments (now including templates for AI), and vendor-risk monitoring for the third parties you have quietly handed data to.
The origin story is fitting for a company built on other people's confusion. In 2018, co-founders Arlo Gilbert and Scott Hertel watched members of the U.S. Congress struggle, on live television, to understand how Facebook made money during Mark Zuckerberg's testimony. If the people writing the laws could not follow the data, they reasoned, the companies subject to those laws had no chance. The two had just sold their previous company, Meta SaaS, and had watched their customers panic about GDPR. The gap was obvious. They built Osano to fill it.
They did it in a slightly unusual way. Osano is a certified B Corporation and a Public Benefit Corporation - the first data privacy platform to be both - which means it has formally committed to balancing profit against a stated social purpose. In most industries that is a tension. In privacy, Osano is betting, it is the same thing: if you genuinely believe data privacy is a human right, then building the tool that enforces it is both the moral move and the market move. The alignment is the pitch.
One JavaScript tag deploys localized banners, blocks unauthorized trackers, and logs every consent action - compliant across 95+ laws and 45+ languages.
Centralizes universal consent and preference data across channels and jurisdictions into one auditable view.
Automates request intake, identity verification, templated responses, routing, and audit logging - inside legal deadlines.
Discovers and maps where personal data actually lives across your systems and vendors.
Templated PIAs, DPIAs, and newer AI / Legitimate-Interest assessments for niche obligations.
Monitors and scores the third parties you share data with, plus a public TrustHub to show your posture.
After selling Meta SaaS and watching the Facebook congressional hearings, Arlo Gilbert and Scott Hertel found Osano in Austin.
A free browser plugin that graded websites arrives first; the SaaS privacy platform follows, backed by $3M seed and a $5.4M Series A.
Jump Capital leads an $11M round; Osano introduces the industry's first "No Fines, No Penalties" pledge.
Baird Capital leads a $25M Series B ($44.4M total). Bobby Jaffari becomes CEO; co-founder Arlo Gilbert shifts to Chief Innovation Officer.
Osano expands Unified Consent & Preference Hub reporting and adds AI / Legitimate-Interest assessment templates.
Total raised: $44.4M · Investors include LiveOak Ventures, Next Coast Ventures, Jump Capital, TDF Ventures, Baird Capital, First Ascent Ventures & 345 Partners.
Osano envisions a future where data privacy is a fundamental human right and the companies that embrace it become the next wave of trusted brands. As a B Corp and Public Benefit Corporation, it holds itself to verified standards of transparency and accountability.
Move fast to keep companies current with privacy laws while making compliance accessible to everyone.
Build diverse teams and inclusive products that serve everyone affected by privacy regulation.
Create efficient solutions that minimize risk and complexity.
Build trust by going above and beyond at every customer interaction.
"If you use Osano and receive a penalty or fine, we will pay the fine or penalty up to $500,000."
"As the first data privacy platform that is also a B Corporation, we are dedicated to meeting the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability."
Osano is a data privacy platform that helps companies comply with laws like GDPR and CCPA through cookie consent management, subject-rights (DSAR) automation, data mapping, privacy assessments, and vendor risk monitoring.
Osano was founded in October 2018 in Austin, Texas by Arlo Gilbert and Scott Hertel, who had previously built and sold Meta SaaS.
It's an industry-first pledge: if you use Osano and still receive a qualifying privacy fine or penalty, Osano will pay it up to $500,000, subject to its Terms of Service.
Roughly $44.4 million in total, including a $25 million Series B led by Baird Capital in August 2023.
Osano competes with privacy and consent-management vendors such as OneTrust, TrustArc, Cookiebot (Usercentrics), DataGrail, Securiti, and Transcend.
Watch: search "Osano product demo" or "Osano data privacy platform" on YouTube for walkthroughs and interviews with the Osano team.