Mobile privacy and security provider AnchorFree has raised $295 million in a VC round.
The round, led by WndrCo with participation from Accel, 8VC, SignalFire, Green Bay Ventures and others, brings total disclosed investment in the company to $357.8 million.
“Today’s digital threats are growing exponentially. Between security, privacy, and access, billions of people are impacted by data collection, security breaches, and censorship online,” said David Gorodyansky, Co-Founder and CEO of AnchorFree. “We built the world’s fastest proprietary VPN technology and the #1 mobile consumer security and privacy product in the world with Hotspot Shield. The WndrCo team brings deep operational experience in launching and scaling global tech products, and we look forward to working closely with them in pursuit of our mission to provide secure access to the world’s information for every person on the planet.”
WndrCo founding partners Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg have joined the AnchorFree board, with Jaswa to serve as Chairman.
“Anyone who accesses the Internet is vulnerable to data theft and an invasion of online privacy which has real, impactful consequences, and David and the AnchorFree team are deeply mission-driven to address this,” said Jaswa.
He went on to say, “This growth will only accelerate as the world’s Internet security problems continue to grow, and we look forward to supporting David and his team as they further AnchorFree’s global success in tackling this outstanding market opportunity.”
Sameer Gandhi, Partner at Accel, has also joined the board, and WndrCo General Partner ChenLi Wang has joined as a strategic advisor.
According to a press release, the new funds will be used to further product development and market expansion, as well as – interestingly to us – to drive M&A activity.
As Cyberviser readers will be well aware, the role of M&A in the security solutions market is something we find particularly interesting. With end-users reporting vendor sprawl as a major problem, providers with the resources to do so are investing heavily in M&A, buying up rivals in order to decrease competition, and specialist startups in order to diversify and expand their offerings.
We’ll be keeping a close eye on AnchorFree to see what happens next.
