Password management startup Passbolt secures $8 million to shake up credential security

Password management startup Passbolt has secured $8 million in funding as part of a Series A investment round.

Passbolt specializes in credential management for organizations ranging in size from small businesses to large enterprises, and boasts more than 400,000 active daily users.

While focusing primarily on password management, the startup also provides security for a variety of organizational credentials. This includes support for root accounts, SSH keys, passkeys, and API keys.

Additionally, Passbolt is fully open source, providing enterprise users with both self-hosting capabilities and the ability to customize management practices to match company policies or regulatory obligations.

The funding will be used to accelerate product development, the company confirmed, and enable it to scale international sales and marketing activities.

Among the first key milestones for the firm in the wake of the investment will be its next major release, Passbolt 5.0, which it said will “extend capabilities” for users.

"Organizations are trapped between consumer-focused password managers and complex monolithic enterprise solutions that don't meet the need for secure collaboration of agile teams operating in digital environments," said Kevin Muller, co-founder and CEO of Passbolt.

"We're building a new type of credential and access manager for organizations of all sizes. It enables technical teams to collaboratively manage access to the organization’s IT, software development, and security infrastructure. At the same time, it allows the broader workforce to automatically log into productivity tools and to share access credentials with colleagues securely."

Passbolt capitalizing on market growth

Passbolt operates in a market which is expected to grow significantly over the next few years.

Analysis from Gartner, for example, predicts the privileged access management (PAM) space will grow to $2.8 billion by 2027, underlining the huge demand for solutions.

The consultancy noted that a key factor in this growth rate is a surge in demand for secure remote access by external contractors and the continued trend of remote and hybrid working practices.

The funding round, which brings its total investment to date to over $11.5 million, was led by Netherlands-based investment firm, Airbridge Equity Partners, alongside existing partners such as Expon Capital.

“Since the very first funding round, we have supported Passbolt in its mission to transform password and access management for modern teams," said Alain Rodermann, partner at Expon Capital.

“We are thrilled to see Passbolt achieve this new funding milestone and continue innovating to serve thousands of organizations worldwide.”