Jan 19, Reuters Toronto-based cyber security startup 1 Password said it raised $620 million in its latest round of funding led by ICONIQ Growth and is now valued at $6.8 billion.
The work-from- home trend is making it harder for companies to keep data safe, and funding comes as the pandemic driven work-from- home trend nears two years.
Jeff Shiner, 1 Password CEO, said the company has more than tripled its head count to around 570 in the past three months and expects to double that this year. He said that the funds raised will be used for strategic acquisitions to help grow the business.
1 Password's technology makes it easier for employees to log into company systems, but also gives companies visibility into what apps employees are downloading without permission from their IT teams. When employees leave the company, the tech makes it easy to ensure that they don't keep access to the company systems.
Over the last couple of years, everyone has had a higher level of inherent stress because of what's going on in the world. Shiner said that we're starting to see some of the implications of that from a security point of view.
In October, 1 Password surveyed 2,500 North American adults who work full-time and primarily at a computer, and found that burned-out employees are a third less likely to follow the company's security guidelines than other employees, including downloading unapproved apps.
1 Password said that Tiger Global, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Accel also participated in the funding round.