New Tech Company Gets $3 Billion Valuation
Island, an enterprise browser company, might just be the most valuable startup you’ve never heard of. Recently, the company announced a $175 million Series D investment, valuing it at a staggering $3 billion. To date, Island has raised a total of $487 million.
What makes Island so valuable? Doug Leone, a partner at Sequoia and an early investor in Island, attributes his interest to the company’s founding team and its innovative approach.
Leone explained to TechCrunch that founders Dan Amiga, a technical expert from Israel, and Mike Fey, a seasoned security executive from the U.S., envisioned a secure enterprise browser built on Chromium. This browser would appear normal to corporate users but offer enhanced security features to prevent malicious activities.
Chromium is an open source web browser that many browsers, including Google Chrome, is built on top of.
This innovative browser aims to reduce overall security costs by eliminating the need for separate tools like VPNs, data loss prevention, and mobile device management—integrating these functions directly within the browser itself.
Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, notes that Island is not only pioneering in the enterprise browser category but also enhancing employee security while maintaining a familiar user environment.
Mike Fey acknowledges the challenges of introducing a proprietary browser in large companies, especially those with extensive app ecosystems, like a Fortune 100 company with 20,000 apps. However, because Island’s browser is based on the widely-adopted Chromium standard, it bypasses lengthy IT testing processes, facilitating easier adoption. “The browser world standardized on Chromium. This idea couldn’t have come to fruition before that,” Fey remarked.
Despite the clear value proposition, Fey admits that it often requires effort to convince executives of the financial benefits. “You have to explain where the ROI [return on investment] comes from. What am I getting? Where’s it coming from? And the ROI has to be very understandable and very believable and large,” he stated.
How substantial? Fey cites an example where one company saved $300 million annually by reducing their data center resources, thanks to the efficiencies gained from using Island’s browser.