About ORCA Opti
We've sat where you sit.
No organisation should fail an audit they could have passed. No organisation should be priced out of the tools that would have got them there.
The people behind ORCA Opti have stood in front of boards that needed answers nobody could fully evidence. They've managed compliance across ASX-listed companies where a single audit finding could move a share price. They've operated in environments where the Royal Air Force and the Royal Australian Navy set the standard.
And they've watched the small businesses who power the Australian economy get locked out of contracts, fail audits and drown in compliance obligations they could barely understand, let alone act on. Not because they lacked intent. Because they lacked tools.
ORCA Opti is that tool.
What makes ORCA Opti different
It's part of everything we do.
Built inside Microsoft 365
Built inside Microsoft 365
Not a separate platform. Not another login. Governance infrastructure embedded in the environment your team already works in. No new attack surface. No data migration.
Sovereign by default
Sovereign by default
Your data stays in your tenant, stays in Australia. The platform is engineered to operate this way by default, not as a setting you toggle on. If your data ever needs to go anywhere, you'll be asked first.
AI that knows your business
AI that knows your business
Opti Assist doesn't give generic answers. It reads your policies, your risks, your controls and your contracts, then gives your team guidance drawn from your own operational data, in plain language, at the moment they need it.
Enterprise rigour. Accessible pricing.
Enterprise rigour. Accessible pricing.
Built to the standard a defence prime would expect. Priced so a 30-person healthcare provider can actually say yes. We close the gap between what large enterprises can afford and what everyone else gets access to.
Built for organisations that can't afford to get it wrong
Defence
Healthcare & Medical
NDIS
Education & Research
Protecting with purpose
Why the orca
The Symbol
The Symbol
ORCA is more than a name. It represents strength, intelligence and unity. Like its namesake, we protect our pod, the businesses and supply chains that power our world.
The Spirit
The Spirit
In legend, the orca is the guardian of the sea, calm and watchful until it is time to act. That instinct guides us. We quietly protect what matters most and move fast when it counts.
The Mission
The Mission
We are building a future where every business and every link in the supply chain can operate with confidence. True protection is not just about defence. It is about empowering progress.
Meet the founders
Built by people who've lived it.
Phoenix (Ray) Guy
Chief Technology Officer
Phoenix has been building conversational AI for over a decade, founding TalkVia AI in 2016 and growing it into an award-winning platform recognised with a Webby Award, what the New York Times calls “the internet's highest honour.” He's the architect behind Opti Assist, the Pearls, the Agents and the AI layer that makes ORCA Opti structurally different from every other GRC platform on the market.
Kathryn Giudes
Managing Director
Kat spent two decades inside Microsoft and Amazon, most recently as Executive Senior Director of the Xbox Games Marketplace and Microsoft Store Online, overseeing global expansion and a revenue portfolio exceeding $1.4 billion USD. She's sat on multiple ASX-listed and private company boards across superannuation, energy, financial services and insurance, and been the person in the room when the board asks about security posture and nobody has a clear answer.
Paige Harkness
Head of Product and Communications
Paige brings over 20 years across media, advertising, sales, branding and conversational AI, including senior positions at NewsCorp and TalkVia AI where she led notable projects for Amazon Studios, iHeart Radio and The Walking Dead. At ORCA Opti she shapes the product from the user's perspective, her conviction: AI should handle the mundane so humans can do the heartfelt, compassionate work only humans can do.
The ORCA Pod
Decades of experience where failure isn't an option
Our team brings together decades of experience across Microsoft, Amazon, the Royal Air Force, Formula One engineering and over a decade of specialised AI development.
We employ veterans and first responders, with certifications across ISO 27001, aviation safety and risk management, and have built solutions for defence, critical infrastructure and some of Australia's largest media organisations.
We didn't study compliance from the outside. We've managed it in environments where the consequences of failure aren't fines, they're lives, missions and national security.
Why I launched ORCA
By Kathryn Giudes, Founder & Managing Director
When I sat on my first board, I realised something that stayed with me for the rest of my career: most organisations are doing the right things. They just can't prove it.
The policies exist but nobody can find them. The controls are in place but nobody's verified them recently. The team is working hard but the evidence is scattered across systems that don't talk to each other. And when a board member, an auditor, or a procurement team assessing your tender asks, the scramble begins.
I've been that person on both sides of the table. I've also sat across from consultants charging extraordinary fees for work that left organisations no more capable than when they started. I built ORCA Opti because I was tired of watching good organisations fail compliance checks they should have passed, and tired of an industry that profits from complexity rather than resolving it.
This platform delivers the same rigour, continuously, automatically, and at a price that doesn't require a board decision just to get started. Governance infrastructure that keeps your data exactly where it should be: in your hands, in your country, under your control.
Does that sound like what you've been looking for? Start with a free readiness assessment. It takes 30 minutes. And it will show you exactly where you stand.
Start with a free readiness assessment.
It takes 30 minutes. And it will show you exactly where you stand.
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