Island, a Dallas-based startup that developed a secure browser for businesses, has secured $115 million in a Series B investment, valuing the firm at $1.3 billion just weeks after emerging from stealth with a $100 million seed round. Insight Partners, the previous lead investor, drove the incredibly quick investment, which comes just weeks after the New York-based venture capital company secured more than $20 billion for its eleventh flagship fund.
Island, which was launched in 2020, developed a Chromium-based security-focused browser for corporate customers. To guarantee that vital data isn’t exposed outside of a business, the enterprise browser disables functionality like copy and paste and screen-shotting, as well as providing secure access for contractors and BYOD workers. Web filtering, web isolation, exploit prevention, smart network routing, and zero-trust access are among the built-in security features.
The investment, according to Island CEO Michael Fey, is the consequence of “extremely fortunate” client demand since the company began in February. “Our team has been successful in securing business in a variety of industries and sizes of companies.” “It really speaks to both the market demand and the product’s scalability, and we’ve been extremely pleased to see that,” Fey added.
“The enthusiasm and remarkable uptake they see from clients is reflected in this financing, which includes participation from our initial investors.” This amount of capital enables us to develop and innovate in order to address additional consumer concerns, putting us in the greatest possible position to dominate the category.” “From the time we emerged from stealth with the Enterprise Browser, our aim was to provide value to security professionals. And it’s been fantastic to see how far we’ve come in such a short period of time.”
The mega-investment, which is supported by previous investors Stripes and Sequoia Capital, comes on the heels of a record year for cybersecurity venture capital investing, indicating that the trend may continue into 2022. Cybersecurity firms raised a “record-breaking” $29.5 billion in venture capital in 2021, according to new statistics from Momentum Cyber, more than tripling the $12 billion raised in 2020 and exceeding the two prior years combined.
