Dashlane made two announcements reflecting the company’s continued global growth and the rising need for data privacy tools.
First, it has closed a $110 million Series D funding round led by Sequoia Capital with Jim Goetz of Sequoia joining the company’s board of directors, and second, has appointed Joy Howard as Chief Marketing Officer. Existing investors Rho Ventures, FirstMark Capital, and Bessemer Venture Partners also participated in the round.
Dashlane will use the funds to enhance its core product, add new capabilities to better address the needs of consumers and businesses of all sizes, and build a category-defining brand.
Howard, a world-class marketer and brand strategist, will transition out of her current role as CMO at Lyft to join Dashlane as CMO in August. In her new role, she will oversee the global marketing function as well as all policy-related initiatives. Howard has a proven track record for growing iconic, multi-billion-dollar global brands, and previously held leadership positions at Sonos, Patagonia, Nike, and Coca-Cola. Additionally, Goetz joins Dashlane’s board on the heels of former Spotify CMO, Seth Farbman, and alongside members like Bernard Liautaud, who founded Dashlane.
The investment and additions to the board and leadership team come at a major inflection point for Dashlane and the broader digital identity market. As more of the world becomes digitized and internet-connected, vulnerable passwords and personal information have become the front door for cyber-attacks against consumers, small businesses, and enterprise firms, fueled by ongoing mega-breaches and credential spills.
The urgency around data privacy and security has reached a tipping point. Consumers and businesses have migrated so much of their critical data to the Cloud – with passwords and logins as their only protection. Because most people still use the same devices and easily hackable passwords in their personal and professional lives, password-related attacks are the cause of more than two thirds of all data breaches.
“While most people are not aware of the magnitude of these issues, an entire economy is booming and growing in sophistication around harvesting and weaponizing stolen credentials, with participation from nation-states and cybercriminals,” said Jim Goetz, Partner at Sequoia. “We believe this category has the potential to one day surpass anti-virus in size, and we are excited to partner with the emerging market leader as they create and grow the category.”
“For years the tech community has maintained that people don’t care enough about their digital security to invest in real protection,” said Joy Howard, who will become CMO of Dashlane. “We don’t believe this is true. Rather, people care deeply about protecting their digital identities, but lacked the effective means. Dashlane is a powerful yet simple tool that empowers users to control their digital identities. I look forward to helping them build a world-class brand and a company that makes digital life worry-free for everyone.”
“We are still only scratching the surface of this opportunity. Billions of people and millions of businesses around the world feel the pain of digital identity – from breaches to stolen identities and the nuisance of remembering passwords. Few are even aware that there is a better way, and we are going to change that,” said Emmanuel Schalit, Dashlane CEO. “With this new capital and the addition of Joy to our leadership team, we have the resources to increase our product leadership, grow the team, and build the brand that will define the future of digital identity protection.”