Highlights:

  • According to the startup, their browser can thwart hacking efforts and stop employees from exploiting company data against company policy.
  • Island serves as a form of application modernization solution for companies using legacy web services.

Island Technology Inc. revealed that it has raised USD 100 million in funding at a USD 1.5 billion valuation. The company has a Chromium-based browser designed for the enterprise sector.

Prysm Capital headed the Series C financing. In addition, several additional institutional investors, including Insight Partners, Sequoia Capital, Canapi Ventures, and others, took part. According to Island, the company has received over USD 325 million in outside capital.

Mike Fey, Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Island, said, “This capital infusion will accelerate our ability to scale globally and continue to aggressively invest in R and D, customer success, and geographic expansion to cover the major global buying centers.”

Chromium, the open-source software engine that powers Google Chrome, is the foundation for Island’s enterprise-focused browser. The company has added a variety of modifications to the engine that are intended to thwart cyberattacks. Additionally, it can stop employees from misusing company data.

Some of Island’s cybersecurity capabilities are geared toward safeguarding the browser itself. The company claims its browser can recognize attempts to change its executable file or memory and shut down instantly. Furthermore, it blocks unsafe extensions.

Malicious websites can download malware or steal data by exploiting browser flaws. Island has disabled Chromium’s JIT compiler, a performance optimization technology that is frequently the target of cyberattacks, to reduce that risk. When it discovers hacking efforts targeting one of its components, Island can also momentarily disable more than a dozen.

The browser can defend against malware already on the user’s device due to yet another set of integrated cybersecurity measures. According to Island, these characteristics can prevent infected computers from accessing the company’s web apps. Additionally, Island protects against keyloggers by injecting random data into the keystroke buffer of its host device, a part of computer memory that saves the user’s keyboard input.

According to the startup, their browser can prevent hacking efforts and stop employees from exploiting company data against company policy. For instance, Island can block users from pasting confidential data into a dubious cloud service. Administrators can also limit access to other browser functions, like the built-in tools for taking screenshots and downloading files.

Island serves as a form of application modernization solution for companies using legacy web services. Applications that lack multifactor authentication out of the box can add it using the browser. An “IE Mode” function also enables it to use old web services created for Internet Explorer.

According to Island, businesses across all “important verticals and segments” use its browser. Several of the 20 largest corporations on the Fortune 500 list are among those firms, the software company revealed today. Workers at various organizations that Island counts as its customers have downloaded the browser over two million times to date.