About Nord Security and its Recent History
Despite never raising money prior to Thursday’s announcement, Nord Security and its suite of products have seen impressive growth over the years. Its security team consists of 1,700 people, with plans to add another 200. Its VPN service, NordVPN, is perhaps its most well-recognized offering. It consistently ranks among the top VPNs in the market. Here are some of the other popular products that Nord Security offers:
NordPass password manager NordLocker for cloud sync and storage NordLayer, its network access service for businesses
The company also offers developer tools to build custom VPNs. In all, Nord Security has over 15 million users worldwide. The company has also been active on the M&A side — just last month, it announced a landmark merger with VPN provider Surfshark.
What is a VPN?
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is software that makes it incredibly easy to have a private and secure online browsing experience. It does so by re-routing your internet traffic through a server in a different part of the world, giving you a new, anonymous IP address. As an advanced security precaution, the best VPN providers also encrypt your internet traffic. This measure keeps the user protected from would-be hackers or other third-party snoops. These features are also extremely useful in situations where you need to browse the internet anonymously or want to access blocked content, such as the American version of Netflix. Premium VPNs also have advanced features for more experienced users. For example, NordVPN offers dedicated IP addresses and obfuscated servers, which makes getting around geo-restrictions all that much easier.
Nord Co-Founder Explains Decision to Raise Funds
Private equity firm Novator Partners led the funding round. Other participants included the following firms and individuals:
Burda Principal Investments General Catalyst Ilkka Paananen of Supercell Miki Kuusi of Wolt Matt Mullenweg of Automattic
Nord’s co-founder Tom Okman also explained why the company decided to raise money for the first time in its 10 year history. “We are profitable and have been bootstrapped until today, but in our investors, we have found partners who believe in our mission as much as we do, which will allow us to grow faster and double down on our aspiration to build a radically better internet. We’re also humbled to play a part in helping Lithuania, a fiercely entrepreneurial country, enter into a new era of technological innovation,” Okman said in a statement.
Investors Believe in Nord’s Cybersecurity Vision
Novator Partners were also quick to express their excitement at partnering with Nord and their work in the cybersecurity space. Furthermore, Birgir Már Ragnarsson, Novator’s managing partner, will be joining Nord Security’s board. “Modern internet security requires a completely new approach to address the secular growth of risks from expanding data regulations and ever-worsening cyberthreats,” Ragnarsson said. “Tom and his team are well-positioned to deliver and usher in the new era of internet security with a powerful and best-in-class suite of privacy and security tools, designed to protect information, accounts and networks. It’s rare to find a company that can already demonstrate such an excellent track record, brand credibility and unwavering focus on serving customers, so we are delighted to partner with Nord Security to support the team as they execute their vision at scale,” he added.
