First Orion
Procurement partnerAbout
First Orion is a telecommunications technology company that provides branded calling and messaging solutions, enabling businesses to display their name, logo, and call reason on outbound calls to improve answer rates and build customer trust. The company also offers call security products that protect businesses and consumers from spam, scam, and spoofing activity across voice and messaging channels. Founded in 2008 and headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas, First Orion serves over 16,000...
Details
VenSearch Intelligence
Ideal Customer
- First Orion serves businesses of all sizes — from SMBs using its self-service Customer Portal (with plans starting around $31/month) to large enterprises with custom pricing for operations making over 50,000 calls monthly.
- Its sweet spot skews toward mid-market to enterprise organizations in high-volume outbound calling industries: contact centers, financial institutions, insurance providers, healthcare providers, and national retailers.
Key Differentiators
- First Orion claims to be the pioneer and market leader of branded calling, with the concept of branded calling originating with its team in 2017, and it was the first to market with a STIR/SHAKEN implementation for a Tier One U.S. carrier.
- The company differentiates itself through its unique time-limited key authentication system (SENTRY), which adds enterprise-level call authentication on top of STIR/SHAKEN, and through its carrier-native approach — no app download required for recipients — covering nearly 400 million U.S. phones simultaneously.
Industries Served
- First Orion serves a broad cross-section of industries including financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail, automotive, logistics/delivery, and contact centers/BPOs.
- The company specifically highlights use cases in financial services and collections, appointment-based services (healthcare and automotive), retail and logistics operations, and customer support contact centers.
Service Coverage
- First Orion primarily operates in the United States, where its solutions reach nearly 400 million phones across all major U.S. carriers (T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, and Boost Mobile), with INFORM Branded Calling also extending coverage to Canadian networks including Rogers Communications and Bell Canada.
- The company has an international presence with offices in North Little Rock (HQ), Seattle, London, and Dubai, and serves businesses in the U.S., Canada, UK, and Germany.
Partnerships
- First Orion holds deep carrier partnerships with T-Mobile (including powering T-Mobile's Scam Shield), Boost Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon, and recently launched an industry-first Mobile Originated Branded Calling (MOBC) solution with T-Mobile.
- The company is part of a formal cross-industry ecosystem partnership with Transaction Network Services (TNS), TransUnion/Neustar, and Hiya to standardize enterprise vetting and end-to-end call authentication across all major U.S. carriers — a partnership in effect since 2022 that delivered an estimated five billion branded calls by end of 2024.
Company Size & Ownership
- First Orion was founded in 2008 (originally as PrivacyStar) and currently employs approximately 300–370 people across offices in North Little Rock, Seattle, London, and Dubai.
- Revenue estimates from third-party sources vary widely, with some citing approximately $147.8 million while D&B models a lower figure; the company has raised approximately $4.45–$10.7 million in disclosed institutional funding.
Compliance & Certifications
- First Orion's security program follows NIST guidelines and the company has achieved ISO 27001:2022 certification for its Information Security Management System (ISMS).
- Its solutions are STIR/SHAKEN-capable and compliant, and the company was the first to market with a STIR/SHAKEN implementation for a Tier One U.S. carrier.
Compiled from public sources by VenSearch · Last researched October 13, 2026
Offerings
8 offeringsAFFIRM® Reputation Monitoring
AFFIRM monitors how a business's outbound phone numbers are labeled across all major U.S. carrier networks, alerting businesses when their numbers are tagged as spam or scam. Validation calls are placed either by the business or automated by First Orion to observe call display and surface insights in the Customer Portal dashboard. The product helps businesses detect mislabeling, increase answer rates, and maintain a clean caller ID reputation.
Business Number Registration API
The Business Number Registration API enables businesses and BPOs to automate high-volume phone number registrations programmatically through First Orion's API rather than submitting numbers individually in the Customer Portal. It is designed for partners and businesses managing large inventories of calling numbers and currently supports T-Mobile registrations. This API-based approach streamlines the registration process at scale for legitimate businesses and BPO partners.
Carrier Call Protection
Carrier Call Protection is an AI-powered fraud protection solution designed for mobile carriers and contact centers to protect their networks and subscribers from scam calls. It uses real-time data analytics, predictive modeling, honeypot solutions, digital security, and STIR/SHAKEN implementation to identify and block bad actors before they reach subscribers, with First Orion claiming to analyze over 130 billion calls and label over 30 billion scam calls yearly. First Orion was the first to market with a STIR/SHAKEN implementation for a Tier One U.S. Carrier.
ENRICH® Branded Messaging
ENRICH is a branded RCS (Rich Communications Services) messaging product that enables businesses to send verified, interactive messages with rich media such as high-resolution images, carousels, and media attachments directly to customers' native messaging apps. It supports two-way conversational A2P messaging via API and webhook, and works across all Android and iOS devices (version 18.1 and above) on all major U.S. carriers. Businesses can display their verified brand name and logo, and metrics such as messages sent, received, and opt-out rate are available in reporting.
Free Number Registration
Free Number Registration is a no-cost service that allows businesses to register their phone numbers with First Orion so that major U.S. carriers can accurately label their outbound calls and reduce incorrect spam or scam tags. Businesses create a Customer Portal account, provide business information, and add their phone numbers for verification; First Orion then communicates the business identity to major carrier networks. The service also includes Watchlist visibility, which shows businesses when and why their numbers are tagged as Potential Spam on the T-Mobile network.
INFORM® Branded Calling
INFORM is a carrier-based branded calling solution that displays a business's name, logo, and call reason on outbound calls across all major U.S. carriers including T-Mobile, AT&T, Boost Mobile, and Verizon. It allows businesses to customize their outbound call display using up to 32 characters and provides analytics to measure answer rates and call performance. The solution works without requiring recipients to download an app, as it operates through the carrier network, and reaches nearly 400 million phones in the U.S.
PROTECT+ Risk Detection
PROTECT+ is an inbound call risk detection product that analyzes incoming call traffic in real time using multi-level risk detection and assigns each call a risk score. It integrates with any business calling platform via a simple REST API and sends an advice-of-risk level and call category back to the business, enabling actions such as warning agents, labeling legitimate calls, or blocking high-risk scam calls. The product draws on First Orion's continuously updated Advice-of-Risk database to provide up-to-date protection.
SENTRY® Call Blocking
SENTRY is a call blocking solution that prevents bad actors from spoofing a business's phone numbers by authenticating every outbound call through a unique time-limited key system generated via REST API or SIP integration. When a call is placed, First Orion generates a key and shares it with the carrier; calls with a matching valid key are delivered while spoofed calls without a key are blocked before reaching the recipient. The solution works across all major U.S. carriers and adds enterprise-level authentication on top of STIR/SHAKEN.
Considering First Orion?
Our team will work with you to determine if First Orion is the right fit for your organization. From research and assessment through procurement negotiation and ongoing vendor management — we handle the entire process at no cost to you.