A Toronto based password management start-up aptly named “1Password” has raised 200 million in venture capital, which it will use to grow its enterprise business.
This is the first outside investment the start-up has taken in its 14-year history, as it shifts from consumer markets into the rapidly growing enterprise segment, an article in the Financial Post said.
1Password offers a password-management service which generates unique, complex passwords and stores them so that a user can easily log into various accounts. 1Password provides a place for users to store multiple passwords, software licenses, and other sensitive information in a virtual vault that is locked with a PBKDF2-guarded master password. By default, this encrypted vault is stored on the company’s servers for a monthly fee.
A significant chunk of the company’s business comes from businesses using the service for their employees. The service is also available for individual users and families.
“We started off as a consumer app, but over the last five years, we’ve spent a huge amount of time and effort to build out the sophisticated tools that businesses need for password managers, reporting, auditing, provisioning and advanced permissions,” 1Password chief executive Jeff Shiner said.
“Businesses now understand the need for enterprise password management. They understand that it’s a real challenge for their employees to try and follow crazy things like password rules, but at the same time, they need to protect their IP.” He added.
The company’s enterprise business has grown by more than 300 per cent in the past two years, and it says that it currently has “millions of users and over 50,000 companies” on the service, according to the Financial Post article.
It certainly looks like businesses now understand the need for password management and being prepared for cyber threats that could come from password thefts and lack of cybersecurity measures.
“There’s a tremendous value in having a lot of that information securely in one place, and readily accessible,” Jeff Shiner added.
The company also believes in educating users on why it is essential to use different passwords for different sites, and why long alphanumerical passwords you don’t remember are better than the short, simple ones that could be easier to remember.
