Bitwarden, a leading open-source password manager for both individuals and businesses, announced today that it has secured a $100 million minority growth investment led by PSG, a leading growth equity firm partnering with software and technology-enabled services companies to help accelerate their growth, with participation from existing investor Battery Ventures. With this investment, Bitwarden is pleased to further its mission of supporting its user community and scaling its open-source, flexible solution to offer stronger online security options for individuals and enterprises.
The decentralization of work and the mixing of ‘personal’ and ‘work’ devices has forced individuals to create, manage and remember dozens of online credentials. This commonly leads to password reuse across multiple accounts and puts end users at risk for password theft. Enterprises are feeling the impacts of poor credential hygiene, with a study showing over half of IT teams reporting a cyberattack in the past year. Further, the repercussions for individuals and businesses following a successful cyberattack are wide reaching – from identity theft to financial fraud – making phishing attacks and password threats one of the biggest vulnerabilities for modern organizations.
Bitwarden helps individuals and businesses operate safely online by delivering an open-source and fully customizable password manager built to work seamlessly on any device. Paid and free versions of Bitwarden include features for credential autofill, automatic end-user password generation, password strength scoring, secure credential and file sharing, and flexible cloud and self-hosted deployment options for sophisticated enterprises. Bitwarden currently serves tens of thousands of businesses and millions of end users globally. We believe this round of funding will allow the company to accelerate the development of new tools and features for its ever-growing global user community.
“By taking a differentiated approach to password management — one that serves individuals and business, one that stands by open-source, one that makes a fully featured free version available to the world — I believe Bitwarden has leapt ahead in the market,” said Bitwarden CEO Michael Crandell. “The rapidly expanding Bitwarden customer base, including small and large companies alike, combined with a highly engaged community, in our view, continues to set Bitwarden apart from other solutions. The timing of the investment is ideal, as we expand into opportunities in developer secrets, passwordless technologies, and authentication. Most importantly, we aim to continue to serve all Bitwarden users for the long haul.”
Read More: How Enterprises Can Overcome Barriers to Password-Less Authentication
“Our investment in Bitwarden reflects our conviction that the password management market is poised for considerable growth as online account use grows and security concerns mount in the hybrid working environment,” commented Tom Reardon, Managing Director at PSG. “In our view, Bitwarden distinguishes itself among the available alternatives by virtue of its open-source architecture, flexible deployment options and zero-cost offering which millions of individuals have utilized. These unique attributes remain unchanged, and we look forward to helping the team bring this solution and the next generation of password management tools to a broader group of customers.” As part of this investment, Tom Reardon and Govind Anand will join the Bitwarden Board of Directors.
“We are thrilled to continue partnering with Bitwarden, a highly valued security solution that remains accessible for all consumers with a no-cost option,” added René Bonvanie, Battery Executive in Residence and the longtime CMO of Palo Alto Networks. “The company’s impressive growth to date, alongside an increasing need for businesses and individuals to more carefully manage passwords, presents a compelling picture for what’s ahead.”
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