What you need to know
- Password company 1Password has reportedly picked up a $100 million investment and is valued at $2 billion.
- The company is experiencing huge growth thanks in part to businesses needing to secure users as they work from home.
Popular password management company 1Password has reportedly received a $100 million investment via an Accel-led round of funding at a $2 billion valuation. The news comes as the company continues to experience huge growth in the business sector, thanks in part to companies realizing that they need to secure their users as they work from home.
As reported by VentureBeat, 1Password has been expanding its portfolio rapidly after making its name as the go-to app for Mac users who wanted to keep all of their passwords safe behind a single Master Password. It's now much more than that, with a focus on business customers helping it reach annual recurring revenue of $120 million.
1Password CEO Jeff Shiner says that 1Password's success is thanks in part to companies having to deal with people working from home — and the security challenges that presents.
"Businesses — both large and small — were forced overnight to adopt a remote way of working," Shiner told VentureBeat. "That switch meant that companies, most of whom were used to a centralized office, suddenly needed to support employees using their own devices, at home on their own potentially insecure networks. With the remote-hybrid shift came a proliferation of SaaS tools to help keep people and teams productive. Many of these tools are brought in to help specific teams solve specific problems, which means that across an organization, there can be hundreds of different software products — all requiring unique logins and access."
1Password has long been one of the best password managers for Mac users, but it's the move into business password and secret management that has opened the door to a whole new — and massive — revenue stream for the company.
It isn't just the Mac where 1Password excels, either. It's one of the best iPhone apps for people who don't want to rely on Apple's iCloud Keychain, too.
It's great to see a company like 1Password doing so well — a company that's always been popular among the Apple community and offers free accounts for journalists to help keep them safe when doing their work.
