How it started
We were building a software product and realised, fairly late, that we had no idea what our obligations were around personal data. We collected email addresses. We stored payment details. We had a privacy policy copied from a template we found online. That was the extent of our compliance thinking.
When we started asking lawyers, the quotes came back between $8,000 and $22,000 — just to tell us what we needed to do, not to fix it. That's before you factor in the Fair Work audit, the NDB response plan, or the ADM disclosure requirements arriving with the December 2026 reforms.
We're a team of students who got tired of watching small businesses get blindsided by compliance obligations they didn't know existed. So we built Complova — the tool we wished was out there when we needed it.
What we're trying to do
Make compliance the default, not the exception — for every Australian business, regardless of size or resources.
The December 2026 Privacy Act deadline affects roughly 2.4 million Australian businesses that have never had to think about the Australian Privacy Principles before. Most of them will find out too late, pay a solicitor to panic-fix their policies, or simply ignore it and hope the OAIC doesn't come knocking.
Complova exists to change that. Not by replacing lawyers — we're not a law firm and we're clear about that — but by making the first 90% of compliance fast, affordable, and accessible to any business with a laptop.
How we approach it
We combine AI analysis with a genuine understanding of Australian law. Every audit pipeline runs through three stages:
What we are — and aren't
Important: Complova is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. Reports and information generated by Complova are general in nature and do not take into account your specific circumstances. Always seek independent legal advice before making compliance decisions that could have legal consequences.
We're honest about this because we think it matters. We're a technology platform that gives you the intelligence and structure to understand your compliance position. We're not a substitute for a lawyer when you have a real problem.
What we are: a Sydney-based team building software that makes the first 90% of compliance dramatically cheaper and faster, so that when you do engage a lawyer, you're paying them to solve hard problems — not to tell you your privacy policy is missing a cross-border disclosure clause.
Built in Sydney, for Australia
Most compliance tools you'll find are American products with an "AU mode" bolted on. Complova was built from the ground up for Australian law — the Privacy Act, the Fair Work Act, the NDB scheme, the OAIC's enforcement approach. We don't map US CCPA to Australian APPs and call it done.
Our infrastructure runs in AWS ap-southeast-2 (Sydney). Your data doesn't leave Australian jurisdiction. We maintain a data residency commitment because we think Australian businesses should be able to trust that their compliance data stays in Australia.