Get in the KNOW
on LA Startups & Tech
X
Courtesy of Santeri Viinamäki
Santa Barbara-Based Bitwarden Is Preparing for a Passwordless Future
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Bitwarden, an open-source password manager, has raised $100 million as the rise of remote work and our increasingly online lives boosts demand for digital security tools.
Growth equity firm PSG led the funding round and was joined by Battery Ventures, an existing investor in Bitwarden. The raise is Bitwarden’s first publicly-disclosed external funding since the Santa Barbara-based company launched in 2015.
Between work and personal needs, people must manage a growing number of online credentials. Too often, people reuse the same passwords across several accounts, putting consumers and businesses at risk of fraud and cyberattacks. Bitwarden offers free and paid tools to more safely store unique credentials, generate hard-to-guess passwords and transfer sensitive data to other people.
The 125-person company competes against incumbents like LastPass and 1Password in a market that’s expected to nearly quintuple to more than $7 billion by 2030, according to Straits Research. Tech titans like Apple and Google also offer password management tools within their browsers and devices—with Apple recently announcing plans to eventually ditch passwords altogether.
Bitwarden aims to stand apart by offering free and cheaper plans than its rivals, with premium subscriptions starting at $10 per year for individuals and $5 per month per user for enterprises. The company also makes its software open-source, so people can examine the security of the platform themselves. Bitwarden pays for third-party audits and partners with a company to regularly scrutinize the code, all in an effort to showcase to customers that the software is sound, Chief Customer Officer Gary Orenstein told dot.LA.
“[Open-source] is the only way that you can provide 100% transparency, to get you to the maximum amount of trust in the relationship of customers using your software,” Orenstein said. “If it's not open source, how do you know it's secure?”
The company plans to use the fresh funds to develop its tools, grow its global customer base and secure more with partnerships with tech resellers and other third-parties. In addition to password management, the firm has expanded into services like Bitwarden Send, which lets people send encrypted text and files that can self-delete. Bitwarden is also among the companies working to expand passwordless security options, such as using fingerprints or codes sent to devices instead of remembering a single password.
Orenstein said Bitwarden saw a boost in business when companies sent their employees home to work remotely during the pandemic. That trend, along with high-profile data breaches, has businesses and individuals seeking out security tools like Bitwarden’s, Orenstein said.
“We've seen recognition from the business IT teams that we're dealing with people who are going to be in different places, connecting over different networks, and we need to enable them to provide the most appropriate security,” Orenstein said.
From Your Site Articles
- Recent Raises in Southern California - dot.LA ›
- Report: TikTok Is Hiring to Help Crack Down on Leaks - dot.LA ›
- Therabody Raises $165M In Funding, Kairos Seals $700K - dot.LA ›
- ‘Raises’: Kneron Gains $48M, Loop Lands $40M - dot.LA ›
- In 2023, Consumers Will Take Back Control of Their Data - dot.LA ›
- Substack Rolls Out New 'Private' Feature - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Christian Hetrick
Christian Hetrick is dot.LA's Entertainment Tech Reporter. He was formerly a business reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer and reported on New Jersey politics for the Observer and the Press of Atlantic City.
Born on a Nurse’s Night Shift, Tiki Bev Aims To Be the Health-Conscious Water Enhancer
06:34 AM | April 16, 2021
Stephanie Wilson is familiar with stress and exhaustion. The 30-year-old entrepreneur is also a full-time night nurse who spends much of her free time working on her fledgling company.
The idea for her startup came from her experience in health care, where workers are worn down after long days and nights, especially during the global pandemic.
"I've always had a hard time staying hydrated," she said "I know my co-workers have a hard time with that as well and I hated plain water."
Wilson saw an opportunity. She canvassed her colleagues and came up with Tiki Bev, a liquid enhancer aimed at frontline workers — and anyone who needs a boost. The startup soft-launched in October 2020, aiming to be the healthy, eco-conscious alternative to liquid water enhancers.
"Everyone needs an immunity boost. You know, as nurses, we never get enough sleep. And we always need more energy," she said.
Even with the pandemic, the global market for water enhancers was valued at $2.6 billion in 2020 by marketing analytics firm Research and Markets, which estimated that would grow $6 billion by 2027, as consumers focus on health-conscious and low-calorie beverages. Kraft and Dyla are big competitors in the space with products such as health-focused Stur and MiO, which advertises itself as a way to turn water into a "flavor-packed vessel of motivation."
Wilson said the more she started to look more into the big product names and common ingredients in many enhancers, the more she realized how bad some of them are for you. Aspartame, sucralose and polyethylene glycol are common in many products, she said. They're also entirely artificial.
Tiki Bev founder Stephanie Wilson
"A couple of these ingredients in the certain liquid enhancers are found in, like, paint thinners," Wilson said. Instead, she aims to make Tiki Bev the natural, health-conscious competition. The company uses stevia and promotes immunity, energy and sleep, she said.
At the moment, Tiki has one product available, a Vitamin C, orange flavor immunity booster. Two more — a passion fruit formula for boosting energy and a pear flavor enhancer to help consumers sleep — there's no exact launch date for those products, but Wilson wants to everyone keep an eye out.
Wilson thought of running Tiki Bev back in her native Ohio, but decided instead to stay in Los Angeles because of the city's proximity to the beach and its focus on healthy living and environmentalism — all of which she sees as key to Tiki's brand.
In February, Wilson found her way onto Amazon's "Two Minute Pitch" show, a competition show hosted by serial entrepreneur David Meltzer on which founders pitch their companies in order to win exposure and cash.
Tiki Bev won the $50,000 prize, which has helped get their product back into production after some investors backed down from their pre-seed funding round.
"It's great to say that you were on a competition show. David Meltzer is a big name and business," Wilson said, "It helps kind of show credibility that we were able to do that and bring home a win for such a small company, especially when we were competing against other big names, people that have been in business much longer than us."
Wilson was able to land a spot on Manos, a Google-backed accelerator aimed at Latino and Latina entrepreneurs, where she got some help learning how to start a business, structure the company and find investors.
Ultimately she wants to distribute the product in a biodegradable bottle and focus on becoming a full-time entrepreneur and solve the problem of her original customers.
"Nursing is a stressful job and if Tiki can help boost your vitamin intake to help you stay healthy, keep you energized, or help you fall asleep after a stressful shift, we have done our job."
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Read moreShow less
Katherine Abando
Katherine Abando is a lifestyle writer and social media producer from Los Angeles. Her coverage interests include internet culture/tech and Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) identity. She enjoys learning about emerging entrepreneurs and digital trends that pop up on her social media feed. Follow her on Twitter @kaband0.
https://twitter.com/kaband0
https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherineabando/
Photo by Christian Wiediger on Unsplash
Amazon Studios is pledging that by 2024 half of all top-line roles – directors, writers, producers – in their movies and shows will be composed of women and underrepresented groups.
The Culver City studio released a new "Inclusion Policy" on Wednesday aimed at improving representation of women, people of color and other minority groups in its films and series. The effort comes as its parent, retail behemoth Amazon, acquired MGM Studios and is attempting to address longstanding criticisms of Hollywood's lack of inclusion.
But Amazon itself is catching heat for reportedly discriminating against its employees.
Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences at UCLA and an author of the annual Hollywood Diversity Report, called Amazon Studios' new guidelines "an important piece of a larger holistic approach" to making lasting change in Hollywood. But, he said, that doesn't address the culture within Amazon proper, and how diversity, equity and inclusion are embedded into the company's daily operations.
"How does it affect executive duties at Amazon, the people making the core decisions from the very top that impact the way people throughout the organization are thinking about what the values of Amazon are?" Hunt said.
Amazon did not reply to a request for comment.
According to the Hollywood Diversity Report out of UCLA, women made up just 26% of film writers and about 21% of directors last year. People of color made up nearly 26% of film writers in 2020. There are also disproportionately fewer women and people of color directing films with budgets over $100 million, the report found.
Amazon Studios said in a statement that the new guidelines are stricter than the diversity requirements put forth last year by the Academy, which runs the Oscar Awards and has faced mounting criticism centered around a rallying cry of "OscarsSoWhite."
Starting in 2022, films vying for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's "best picture" award must submit confidential "inclusion" data; and by 2024 they must adhere to specific diversity standards, which have been both lauded and criticized for being too lenient.
Amazon Studios' new guidelines include the following specific goals for its productions:
- Each film or series with a creative team of three or more "above-the-line" roles – directors, writers, producers – "should ideally include a minimum 30% women and 30% members of an underrepresented racial ethnic/group."
- Actors' real-life identities should align with those of their characters.
- At least one character should have a speaking role from each of the following categories: LGBTQIA+, person with a disability, and three "regionally underrepresented race/ethnic/cultural groups." One character can fulfill one or more of these identities, and a minimum of 50% of them should be women.
- Seeking bids from woman-owned and minority-owned vendors and suppliers.
- Pay equity across casting, crew and suppliers.
Among the advisors who helped Amazon Studios develop its new guidelines were representatives from the USC Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, a think tank that studies diversity and inclusion in entertainment.
"Frankly, the outcomes of [diversity equity and inclusion] work within the entertainment industry have not been swift or sweeping. In part, that can be attributed to disingenuous approaches to address the systemic barriers to entry that have long plagued Hollywood," said Stacy Smith, founder and director of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, in a statement. "But now, Amazon Studios has created a comprehensive new blueprint that will change Hollywood by elevating those who have historically lacked access. I'm immensely proud of this new policy and I know it will be a gamechanger throughout an industry often resistant to real change."
Little was divulged by Amazon about how it plans to enforce the new guidelines.
"You have to incentivize people to do the right thing," Hunt said. "You can do it with a carrot or with a stick. I'd want to see a conversation about that."
Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify the breadth of the studio's new policy.
From Your Site Articles
- Amazon Launches Its First Big-Budget Video Game, Crucible - dot.LA ›
- Amazon Buys MGM for $8.45B, Acquires Bond Franchise - dot.LA ›
Related Articles Around the Web
Read moreShow less
Sam Blake
Sam primarily covers entertainment and media for dot.LA. Previously he was Marjorie Deane Fellow at The Economist, where he wrote for the business and finance sections of the print edition. He has also worked at the XPRIZE Foundation, U.S. Government Accountability Office, KCRW, and MLB Advanced Media (now Disney Streaming Services). He holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson, an MPP from UCLA Luskin and a BA in History from University of Michigan. Email him at samblake@dot.LA and find him on Twitter @hisamblake
https://twitter.com/hisamblake
samblake@dot.la
RELATEDTRENDING
LA TECH JOBS