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Venture Capital News: AnchorFree Closes $295M Investment

2018-09-05
REDWOOD CITY, CA, Mobile privacy and security leader, announced today that it has closed a $295 million investment led by WndrCo.
AnchorFree, the mobile privacy and security leader, announced today that it has closed a $295 million investment led by WndrCo with participation from Accel, 8VC, SignalFire, Green Bay Ventures, and other leading technology investors and executives. The funds will be used to further product development and market expansion and drive M&A activity. AnchorFree's co-founder and CEO David Gorodyansky has been joined on the Board by WndrCo Founding Partners Sujay Jaswa and Jeffrey Katzenberg, and Sameer Gandhi, Partner at Accel, with Jaswa serving as Chairman. WndrCo General Partner, ChenLi Wang has joined as a strategic advisor.

AnchorFree is the first company to bring enterprise-level privacy and security products to consumer mobile devices, helping to protect their identities and data online while working to secure against privacy and security challenges such as: browsing and identity data collected by ISPs and websites without user consent, hacking on public Wi-Fi hotspots, phishing, and malware attacks. In a just-released independent report from leading security and performance auditor AV-Test, AnchorFree was found to be the most transparent and trustworthy VPN provider. AV-Test found that, of those evaluated, AnchorFree was the only provider that has both issued a public transparency report and has never shared user data with law enforcement.

"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, 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."

As concerns about privacy and data security continue to grow among consumers and businesses, AnchorFree's flagship product Hotspot Shield™ has become the most popular product for users to access the Internet in a more secure and private manner. AnchorFree's products have been downloaded more than 650 million times by users across 190 countries, and are being downloaded more than 250K times a day with half of these coming from users in the U.S.

"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. "AnchorFree has the two most-downloaded mobile security products, including the #1 mobile VPN product, because they have the fastest most robust technology and they work for the needs of consumers, protecting against phishing, malware, and spam in addition to providing secure Internet access. 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."

The company recently launched Hotspot Shield for Business, which allows employees at SMBs and SMEs to better secure their data on public Wi-Fi and to communicate and access their work more securely on the Internet. AnchorFree's proprietary VPN technology, Hydra, has been rated as the fastest VPN technology available by AV-Test, with as much as 2x faster speeds than other consumer and enterprise VPNs on the market. Hydra has been widely adopted by app developers and the Hydra Software Development Kit is used by 60 percent of the world's largest security companies and many global telecommunications companies.

AnchorFree helps millions of people and businesses around the world to more privately and securely access the Internet, enabling:

Security on Public Wi-Fi: Giving users greater security from having their data and identities compromised by hackers at public Wi-Fi hotspots such as airports, hotels, coffee shops, and college campuses.
Personal Privacy Online: Hotspot Shield helps protect users from Internet Service Providers, websites, and mobile apps that attempt to collect user data and track users across the web. Hotspot Shield anonymizes the IP address of each user, disrupting the ability for third parties to track the user across the web using the IP address.
Internet Freedom and Global Access: Hotspot Shield offers users a secure way to bypass censorship or restrictions, democratizing access to the world's information.
Comprehensive Security: AnchorFree's products help protect against phishing, malware, and spam, addressing a multi-billion dollar problem for consumers and businesses.
About AnchorFree: AnchorFree is the world's mobile security and privacy leader that enables consumers to more securely and privately access the Internet. With the world's fastest proprietary VPN technology, AnchorFree's flagship product, Hotspot Shield™, is the number one consumer security and privacy platform in the world providing global access to the Internet, unencumbered by censorship. AnchorFree's technology is available as a SDK and powers security and privacy solutions for 60 percent of the world's largest security companies and a number of global telecommunications companies. AnchorFree's mission is to provide secure access to the world's information for every person on the planet, and its products have been downloaded more than 650 million times. Please visit www.anchorfree.com for more information.

About WndrCo: WndrCo is a holding company that invests in, acquires, develops and operates consumer technology businesses for the long term. Founded by media and technology veterans Ann Daly, Sujay Jaswa, and Jeffrey Katzenberg, WndrCo is co-headquartered in Los Angeles and San Francisco. Please visit www.wndrco.com for more information.

About Accel: Accel is a leading venture capital firm that partners with exceptional founders with unique insights, from inception through all phases of private company growth. Atlassian, Braintree, Cloudera, Crowdstrike, DJI, DocuSign, Dropbox, Etsy, Facebook, Flipkart, Jet, Pillpack, Qualtrics, Slack, Spotify, Supercell, Tenable, Venmo, and Vox Media are among the companies the firm has backed over the past 35 years. The firm seeks to understand entrepreneurs as individuals, appreciate their originality, and play to their strengths. Because greatness doesn't have a stereotype.
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