'Enterprise' browser maker Island valued at $1.3bn out of the gate
- Reference: 1648056610
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/03/23/island_enterprise_browser_unicorn/
- Source link:
Island, which announced itself on February 1, said today it completed a Series B funding round raising $115m and bringing its valuation to $1.3bn. Founded in 2020, Island is now in [1]prestigious company as one of the fastest startups to ever hit unicorn status (meaning a valuation over $1bn).
Heading the investment round was venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners, whose co-founder and managing director Jeff Horing describes Island as a product addressing a real market need.
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"Our market research on this space shows a real need and robust customer response to the Island Enterprise Browser category, which naturally led us toward a substantial increased investment in this significant opportunity," Horing said.
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Insight Partners has also invested in Shopify, Qualtrics, DocuSign, Docker, Mimecast, and other brands you've likely heard of.
Original investment partners Stripes and Sequoia Capital also participated in the round, bringing the total to over $200m.
What is an enterprise browser?
Island describes the modern web browser as the most-used enterprise application, despite the fact there isn't a single browser designed specifically for enterprise use. [5]Island Enterprise Browser , built on Chromium, aims to be the secure-by-design alternative.
[6]Google kills download-shrinking Lite Mode browser tech
[7]Chromium-adjacent Otter browser targets OS/2
[8]Three major browsers are about to hit version 100. Will websites cope?
[9]Muglia's monster Snowflake in quarter-of-a-billion-dollar funding blizzard
[10]UK regulators accept Google's Privacy Sandbox promises
Island's browser is centrally managed like other enterprise assets, and gives businesses' security teams control over users' functionality such as copy, paste, download and upload, screencapturing, and other potential exfiltration routes. Advanced security features are also available, like smart network routing, MFA enforcement, and everything else that IT teams have to manage in the last mile of user connectivity.
The browser also offers what Island said is an alternative to "poor-performing VDI software," enabling a native experience on the user's computer while maintaining security and granular control through things like built-in safe browsing, web filtering, web isolation, exploit prevention, and zero-trust network access.
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Island reckons the key to its appeal is how it looks and feels just like any other Chromium browser, and how it integrates security in a non-obstructive manner: the theory is everything is controlled behind the scenes, and all users have to do is keep working.
"The enthusiasm from our customers and the IT community has been extraordinary," said Mike Fey, Island CEO and co-founder. Fey has made the rounds at a number of large enterprise security firms, including McAfee, where he was EVP and CTO and more recently, President and COO at Symantec, a position that ended in 2018 as Fey pursued boardpositions at security-focused startups including Axis Security. Fey's founding partner, Dan Amiga, held security-focused roles at Symantec in addition to joining Fey in board appointments.
Island testing at several Fortune 500 companies in September 2021 was positive, and indicated an intensifying market demand for its product, the company said. ®
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[1] https://fleximize.com/unicorns/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YjumoLCT1rJxCx9lsRGBegAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YjumoLCT1rJxCx9lsRGBegAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YjumoLCT1rJxCx9lsRGBegAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.island.io/product
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/24/google_chrome_lite_mode_deprecated/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/18/chromium_based_otter_browser_targets_os2/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/17/browsers_version_100_websites_bug/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2018/01/25/snowflake_in_funding_blizzard/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/02/11/uk_cma_google_cookies_assurances/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YjumoLCT1rJxCx9lsRGBegAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Oh, I don't know. Think about all the data that Chrome slurps, or Edge, etc. Add in idiotic ideas like file browsing ads in Windows 11 and you get where mainstream software companies are headed. It's easy money to them. And for consumers, whatever, its fine I guess. But at work you are there to work, not get ads for crap. I see this as being a value add to large enterprise. Whether they deliver on the goods or not remains to be seen.
One does have to wonder how well it handles 'legacy web apps' that require :shudders: Internet Explorer, though...
Mines the flame-proof one-OW! I'm going! I'm going!
Any company still married to IE is on an island! The writing has been on the wall for 1 maybe 2 decades? Or have I over simplified the time factor??
Like the whole NHS...
Useful product but ridiculous valuation
Sure, I can see some (a tiny minority, but some) enterprises might want this. It will only be useful to large enterprises, who have a big enough IT team to manage it (can you imagine asking your IT team to define what pages users are allowed to use cut and paste on?), and can deal with the needs of all the different types of users in the company.
But the barriers to entry are very low - a lot of this could probably be done in a plugin, but even if some of it requires real changes to the UI code, anyone can take Chromium and build something similar. Of course, there are all the tools around it (defining rules, and managing their deployment) but it isn't rocket science. So, what justifies this enormous valuation?
Unless there is something like an unannounced deal with one of the big defence contractors: governments love to lock up what their users can do.
Another browser
Super. I'm sure it will comply with the standards, just like all the others do.
Oy Vey
Ah yes, the browser is the operating system and applications driver .... and coincidentally, both fortunately and unfortunately, [dependent upon one's primary interest and adept APT ACTive ability] a Virtual RAT Trap too.
And a collapsing global stock and funny fiat money market just loves to pump and pimp the unicorn to starry eyed investor types with wardrobes of flash shirts to shred for recycling of nothing new for something real lairy and airy fairy. ........ but it’s the American Way. [throw dollars at anything to keep the churn and paper for spending ever turning, which works very well but only when all have plenty of folding for lavish exchanging]
What is it that they say about suckers? ........ There is one born every minute?
IE Browser?
Really? They are calling it Island Enterprise Browser? Or IE Browser for short?
control over users' functionality such as copy, paste, screencapturing
It's a good job that the phones in most people's pockets don't have cameras built into them, otherwise this browser security idea might start to look a bit worthless........
Otherwise, basically integrating Chrome's open source engine with Active Directory user policies (which, let's face it, is the main thing actually used to manage these type of restrictions in big enterprises) to restrict functionality, is not an especially big or hard task, and definitely not worth a billion buckaroos.
I would suspect that many people will cotton onto this quite quickly and do the same, thus reducing that valuation considerably.
Right, so I exit full-screen mode on my remote desktop, open the snipping tool on my local computer, copy the data, take a nap.
My daughter works in clinical trials. AFAICS her current firm is simply tweaking formulations into increasingly niche bits of an old, well supplied market. I wondered if there really was a big demand for such products. Her reply was "The boss is very good at talking money out of investors." and it seems to fit this case too.