The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Financial decision · 2005–2022
1Password ran profitable 14 years with no VC, then raised $200M and hit $150M ARR
Two web consultants built a paid password manager in 2005, stayed profitable with zero funding for 14 years, then took $920M to chase enterprise.
1Password
What the business is
1Password is a password manager: it stores logins, credit cards and secrets in an encrypted vault and auto-fills them across apps and sites.
How it started
In 2005, web consultants Dave Teare and Roustem Karimov in Toronto were managing logins for dozens of client sites and built a tool to fix their own pain. When they released it, enough people had the same problem that they closed the consultancy and built 1Password full-time — profitable from day one.
What happened
The company grew on revenue for 14 years: 20 employees when Jeff Shiner became CEO in 2012, 174 by 2019, profitable throughout. In November 2019 it took its first outside capital, a $200M Series A from Accel — the largest single investment in Accel's 35-year history. A $100M round at $2B followed in July 2021, then a $620M Series C led by ICONIQ Growth in January 2022 at a $6.8B valuation, bringing total funding to $920M. ARR exceeded $150M at the end of 2021, with over 100,000 business customers.
How it ended up
Still running and scaling: 570 employees at the start of 2022 with plans to double, business products now 60% of revenue, and expansion into secrets management and universal sign-on.
Background
1Password is a password manager that stores logins, credit cards and secrets in an encrypted vault and auto-fills them across apps and sites. It started in 2005 as a side project of two Toronto web consultants, Dave Teare and Roustem Karimov, who were drowning in client-site passwords; when they released the tool, demand was strong enough that they closed the consultancy and built 1Password full-time.
The company was profitable from day one and grew without a dime of venture capital for 14 years, from 20 employees in 2012 to 174 by 2019. That record is what made its first round unusual: in November 2019, Accel invested $200M in 1Password's Series A, the largest single investment in the firm's 35-year history, explicitly because the company was scaling fast and had been profitable since day one.
With capital in hand, 1Password pushed into the business market it had opened in 2016. By January 2022, a $620M Series C led by ICONIQ Growth valued the company at $6.8B — tripling the prior valuation — and brought total funding to $920M. ARR exceeded $150M at the end of 2021, business products made up 60% of revenue, and it served over 100,000 business customers.
What has to be true
- Fourteen years of profitability meant the founders never had to raise until they wanted to, and could take a $200M first round on their own terms.
- The consumer product was the wedge for enterprise: password hygiene had to be adopted by real people before it could protect a business.
- The bet that people would pay for security software held up: the company was profitable from day one and grew to $150M+ ARR without a sales-led engine for most of its life.
- Deferring funding made the later rounds bigger and cheaper for founders: Accel paid a record $200M just to get in at year 14.
What can be applied
Profitable bootstrapping buys optionality: 1Password took its first dollar of VC only when it had a proven business engine, and got to pick terms and timing instead of being picked.
Aftermath
As of January 2022, 1Password was still growing and hiring aggressively: 570 employees (up from 177 at the start of 2020) with plans to double headcount that year, over 100,000 business customers including IBM, Slack, GitLab and Snowflake, and ARR above $150M. The company used the Series C for product expansion — Secrets Automation, universal sign-on, and the 2021 acquisition of SecretHub — and planned more strategic acquisitions.
Sources
- Fourteen years after launching, 1Password takes a $200M Series A
- 1Password lands $620M to help businesses secure their workers
- In a new Canadian startup record, 1Password raises $620M on $6.8B valuation
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