1 week Ago By BNNBloomberg
Tailscale Inc., a security startup based in Toronto, has raised US$160 million from investors — a significant haul for the Canadian company. The deal values the startup at $1.
5 billion according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified discussing private information. The funding round was led by Accel, Tailscale plans to announce on Tuesday, with participation from CRV, Insight Partners, Heavybit and Uncork Capital. The chief executive officer of CrowdStrike Holdings Inc.
, George Kurtz, also invested. Tailscale first hit a $1 billion valuation three years ago, during happier times for the venture capital and startup industry. But the company has said that its annual recurring revenue has recently doubled, and that it’s not worried about looming tariffs.
Tailscale has raised $275 million to date. Rockier trade relations between the U.S.
and Canada won’t meaningfully impact the company, said co-founder and CEO Avery Pennarun. “Changes like tariffs matter, but they matter a lot less when your network can follow the economics, and actively adapt to it,” he said. Tailscale works with customers like Instacart and Duolingo Inc.
to help developers quickly set up VPNs for secure remote access to corporate networks. The startup says it has more than 10,000 corporate customers. Accel partner Amit Kumar said the firm expanded its investment, because “developers are in love with the product.
” He’s particularly enthusiastic about Tailscale’s adoption in the artificial intelligence industry. Pennarun said that the product helps with technology connections across all types of internet-connected devices, ranging from laptops to drones to autonomous vehicles, allowing users “to connect any device to any other device anywhere in the world.” He also said the company has attracted attention from would-be acquirers, but that it’s “not interested right now” in a sale.
Katie Roof, Bloomberg News.
