Hollywood stars join ICONIQ Growth in 1 Password, valued at $6 billion

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Hollywood stars join ICONIQ Growth in 1 Password, valued at $6 billion

January 19, Reuters -- Toronto-based 1 Password raised $620 million in a funding round led by investment firm ICONIQ Growth, which has tripled its valuation, as the cybersecurity startup aims for strategic acquisitions to boost its growth.

Hollywood stars including Ryan Reynolds, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and Ashton Kutcher also participated in one of the largest rounds of security funding that valued the company at $6.8 billion.

The funding comes at a time in which 1 Password has more than tripled its headcount to meet companies' increased data security challenges because of the pandemic-driven work from home trend.

Chief Executive Officer Jeff Shiner said the company expects to double its headcount of 570 this year, as it looks to capitalize on growing cybersecurity needs.

In July of last year, the 16-year-old company raised $100 million, valuing it at $2 billion, in a funding round backed by Meta Platforms Inc and Spotify investor Accel Partners.

1 Password's technology makes it easier for employees to log into their company systems, while giving employers visibility into what apps workers can download without permission from their IT teams. The tech makes it easy to find employees who don't have access to the company systems when they leave the company.

1 Password was started as a consumer password management app, and expanded into a product for businesses in 2015 that now accounts for a large portion of its revenue. Its clients include IBM Corp, Slack, and Shopify Inc.

It competes with companies such as LastPass, NordPass and SafeInCloud, which also promise businesses and consumers secure password management.

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 mostly through computers and found that burned-out employees are a third less likely to follow company's security guidelines than other workers, including downloading unapproved apps.

The latest funding round included Accel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Tiger Global and Lightspeed Venture Partners. Tiger Global is heavily betting on tech startups to cash in on upcoming market winners and potentially reap greater returns.