Lithuania based tech start-up Nord Security has announced that it has raised its first-ever funding of $100 Million in a funding round led by Novator - an European firm that has backed Deliveroo, Stripe and Tier. Post this round, the startup’s value has risen to the ‘unicorn’ level evaluation of $1.6 Billion. 

Other firms participating in the round included Burda Principal Investments and General Catalyst, and individual VCs like Ilkka Paananen of Supercell, Miki Kuusi of Wolt and Matt Mullenweg of Automattic.

Birgir Már Ragnarsson, managing partner at Novator Ventures, said,“Modern internet security requires a completely new approach to address the secular growth of risks from expanding data regulations and ever-worsening cyberthreats. Tom and his team are well-positioned to deliver and usher in the new era of internet security with a powerful and best-in-class suite of privacy and security tools, designed to protect information, accounts and networks. It’s rare to find a company that can already demonstrate such an excellent track record, brand credibility and unwavering focus on serving customers, so we are delighted to partner with Nord Security to support the team as they execute their vision at scale.” 

Nord Security’s flagship product NordVPN is a popular VPN tool among Southeast Asians, Europeans and US. With the rise in online privacy and mass blockers on browsers, Nord Security has tapped into the market and created a niche for themselves. 

VPNs are often used by people to evade more restrictive internet policies (whether due to geo blocked content, or more controlling governments or something in between), or simply to keep their browsing more private. There are many independent, free and paid VPN accessible around the world and are subject to lesser scrutiny and tracking.  

Tom Okman, the co-CEO and co-founder with Eimantas Sabaliauskas said “We saw the changing landscape in digital privacy… and that the open internet was not working as intended. Our mission is to build a radically different internet by securing consumer and enterprise accounts, and network information, against cyber threats around the world.”