DuckDuckGo, the privacy-focused search various to Google, needs to place cash into startups which have an identical concentrate on privateness.
The corporate says that it’s actively in search of startups in search of funding, or startups that could be thinking about partnering up or being acquired. In a weblog put up immediately, the corporate name-checked its SVP of finance, Mike Marino, and director of company and enterprise improvement, Diana Chiu, as factors of contact for these .
DuckDuckGo writes:
“For early-stage investments, we’re versatile on deal construction, purpose to maneuver rapidly and are blissful to co-invest with different corporations, funds, and people. For acquisitions, we’re open to a spread of corporations that share a dedication to defending person privateness.”
Based in 2008, DuckDuckGo is the handiwork of CEO Gabriel Weinberg (pictured) who funded the corporate himself for the primary three years earlier than touchdown its first exterior money injection in 2011. Within the intervening years, DuckDuckGo attracted some $180 million in exterior funding (a honest chunk of which got here from the secondary market), with backers together with Tiger International, Union Sq. Ventures, and people resembling WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton and web-inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee.
DuckDuckGo, which says it has been worthwhile since 2014 and has had greater than $100 million in annual income since at the least 2021, positions itself because the antithesis of Google, monetizing by advertisements based mostly solely on the content material of key phrase searches fairly than person knowledge. It additionally makes cash by “non-tracking” affiliate partnerships with the likes of Amazon and eBay. Extra lately, the corporate has expanded additional past search, providing subscription bundles that embrace options resembling a VPN.
Personal cash
Whereas DuckDuckGo has traditionally donated to privacy-focused non-profits such because the Digital Frontier Basis (EFF), the Sign Basis, and The Markup, it has quietly been taking a extra capitalistic method to the way it helps organizations that align with its personal objectives. Final month, the corporate joined a $50 million funding spherical into generative AI search firm You.com, alongside big-name backers resembling Nvidia and Salesforce Ventures.
A part of DuckDuckGo’s newly-launched Privateness Professional bundle additionally features a private data elimination service, whereby it scans knowledge dealer websites to seek out private knowledge and requests elimination on the person’s behalf. As issues transpired, this service was powered by a startup referred to as Removaly, which DuckDuckGo had quietly acquired again in 2022.
A DuckDuckGo spokesperson informed TechCrunch that the corporate has invested in six startups over the previous three years, although would solely identify You.com, Removaly, and one hitherto unknown one — an AI mannequin coaching platform referred to as EverArt.
Whereas client privateness tech will probably be a big focus for its investments, DuckDuckGo additionally mentioned it is going to be investing in corporations targeted on “search and browse,” in addition to “rising applied sciences” like generative AI. Certainly, its latest funding in You.com checks all these containers, because it presents a “zero-trace” personal search mode that You.com claims is “much more personal than DuckDuckGo.”
So whereas DuckDuckGo has been dabbling within the VC and M&A domains already, it’s now doubling down on these efforts by actively requesting that appropriate startups attain out.
As with different companies with funding off-shoots, from massive weapons resembling Google by smaller tech corporations like Twilio and Workday, DuckDuckGo will probably be investing from its stability sheet — that’s the place its profitability and annual revenues come into play. However provided that it’s nonetheless a comparatively small personal firm in its personal proper, it received’t be becoming a member of megabucks pre-IPO funding rounds — that is all about early-stage investments.
“That is the primary time we’ve talked about our investments and the general technique round it straight,” the spokesperson continued. “We wished to make this announcement to formalize this work that has been occurring behind the scenes for some time, and sign to startups, potential companions, and the bigger tech neighborhood that our door is open to anybody who needs to work with us on a extra personal Web.”
