Optro, formerly known as AuditBoard, has announced the acquisition of Midship in a move aimed at advancing AI-driven governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) operations for global enterprises.
The acquisition brings Midship’s AI-native SOX automation technology into Optro’s platform, enabling enterprise customers to deploy governed AI agents for controls testing, audit workflows, and compliance operations.
According to Optro, the integration addresses mounting pressure on internal audit teams that are being asked to deliver greater efficiency despite tightening budgets and growing regulatory demands.
“We are leveraging agentic AI to transform internal audit from tactical and manual to strategic and automated,” said Raul Villar Jr..
Raul Villar Jr. said the acquisition represents a major step toward building the industry’s first agentic system of action for GRC.
“Global enterprises shouldn’t have to choose between cutting-edge innovation and the stability of a trusted partner. By embedding the market’s leading agentic SOX solution directly into Optro’s platform, we are delivering the next generation of AI to our customers,” Villar said.
Founded in 2024 and backed by Y Combinator, Midship specializes in using agentic AI to automate repetitive audit and controls testing processes traditionally handled manually by internal audit teams.
Kieran Taylor, who previously worked on SOX compliance technology initiatives at Instacart and Deloitte, said the company was created to address operational bottlenecks faced by audit teams globally.
“We are thrilled to integrate our agentic capabilities into Optro’s platform to help teams across the globe automate the heavy lifting of controls testing,” Taylor said.
As part of the deal, Taylor and Midship co-founders Aahel Iyer and Max Maio will join Optro’s product team to continue developing AI-powered audit and compliance capabilities.
The integrated platform will provide features including unstructured data ingestion, autonomous test execution, and automated audit-ready workpaper generation. Optro said these capabilities will complement its recently introduced AI Narratives, Continuous Control Monitoring, and Fieldwork Automation offerings.
The acquisition follows Optro’s recent rebranding from AuditBoard and its earlier acquisition of AI governance specialist FairNow, further strengthening the company’s focus on AI-powered enterprise risk and compliance management.
