By Jane Lanhee Lee
(Reuters) – 1Password, a Canadian security and privacy tech startup, said on Tuesday it raised $100 million in a round led by Silicon Valley venture capital firm Accel, valuing the company at $2 billion.
The latest investment in the cyber security firm comes as the pandemic and remote work have given rise to more hacks and a bigger need to keep companies and consumers safe.
1Password initially started as a consumer app 15 years ago, said CEO Jeff Shiner. But five years ago it expanded to serve the fast-growing corporate market, where companies face increasing challenges.
For example, he said, employees use apps an employer may not know about, and the difficulty of tracking employee usernames and passwords has even led to IT employees continuing to have access to their former employers’ system.
Shiner said the company was profitable and still flush with cash from its $200 million funding round in 2019. But this latest round helped to bring in key investors who can help the company grow, including Tobias Lutke, CEO of e-commerce platform Shopify, and Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of collaboration and messaging app Slack Technologies Inc.
The company has doubled its valuation since that last round, Shiner said.
Arun Matthew, a partner at Accel, which led the funding in 2019, said Accel approached 1Password to raise more funds as the firm sees a huge opportunity in the space. He said Accel, which was an early investor in Facebook Inc, has 24 cyber security investments.
“We see this as courage capital,” said Matthew, noting that having a lot of cash on hand can help 1Password pursue bigger opportunities, including acquisitions.
(Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Dan Grebler)
