The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2009–2026
Mullvad's flat-fee privacy bet: no-log VPN to SEK 230.9M revenue, no outside capital
Two founders, one flat fee, no email or account names, no logs: Mullvad hit SEK 230.9M revenue in 2023, profitable, with zero outside investment.
Mullvad VPN AB
What the business is
Mullvad is a Gothenburg-based VPN service with one flat price — €5 per month (PCMag) — anonymous numeric account IDs instead of email or usernames, a no-logs policy, cash/Monero payment options, and open-source clients.
Starting capital：No outside capital — growth was funded from revenue; the founders' published owner's directive says no further capital contributions are expected.
How it started
Mullvad was founded in Gothenburg in 2009 by Fredrik Strömberg and Daniel Berntsson, who began building the organization in the summer of 2008 'for idealistic reasons' (founders' statement, quoted on Privacy Guides Forum). The founders have said the company disqualifies outside investment — venture capital or going public — and has grown organically instead.
What happened
Revenue reached SEK 230.9M in 2023, up 42.1% year over year, with pre-tax profit of SEK 57.8M; by July 2023 the service had over 550,000 unique accounts. Mullvad completed its migration to diskless, RAM-only VPN servers in September 2023, and its apps have been open source since the start.
How it ended up
Still running, independent and profitable as of 2026: the flat-price, anonymous-account model is unchanged, the open-source app repository has roughly 7,500 GitHub stars, and there is no public record of a funding round or exit.
Background
Mullvad is a VPN service from Gothenburg, Sweden, that sells one thing: a flat €5/month subscription with anonymous numeric account IDs — no email, no username, no logs — plus open-source clients and payment options such as cash and Monero. The bet was that enough people would pay for privacy treated as the product itself, rather than as a feature bolted onto a data-hungry business.
The company was founded in 2009 by Fredrik Strömberg and Daniel Berntsson, who began building in summer 2008 'for idealistic reasons' and have said outside investment disqualifies the company, so it grew organically. It took years to compound: 2023 net revenue reached SEK 230.9M, up 42.1% year over year, with SEK 57.8M pre-tax profit, and the service passed 550,000 unique accounts by July 2023.
Trust became the moat: Mullvad completed a move to diskless, RAM-only servers in September 2023, keeps its apps open source, and its repository now holds roughly 7,500 GitHub stars. As of 2026 the service still runs on the same flat price and anonymous-account design, with no public record of a funding round or sale.
What has to be true
- The flat, anonymous design is itself the pitch: no email, no logs, cash payments — each constraint is a visible proof of the privacy claim.
- Open-source clients and published audits let the privacy community verify the product instead of trusting marketing, generating free evangelism.
- The founders' explicit no-VC commitment (owner's directive) removed growth-at-all-costs pressure, so pricing and product never needed to degrade into harvesting.
- Slow, subscription-funded growth in a category full of venture-backed rivals shows that trust can be a durable advantage even when scale comes late.
What can be applied
Product constraints that look like handicaps — flat price, no data, no upsells — compound as trust where rivals harvest users; organic, values-based ownership beats the venture track.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 Mullvad continues to operate independently from Gothenburg with the same flat-price, anonymous-account model. Its open-source VPN app repository carries roughly 7,500 GitHub stars (PrivacyTools), and the network spans 695 servers in 46 countries. The most recently verified public financials remain 2023 — SEK 230.9M net revenue and SEK 57.8M pre-tax profit — while the founders' published owner's directive commits the company to 50/50 ownership, no outside capital, and no sale.
Sources
- 20 Swedish startups and scaleups that grew fast in 2023, sustainably
- Mullvad Completes Migration to RAM-Only VPN Servers
- Mullvad VPN review
- Mullvad Review: Private VPN in 2026
- Mullvad - why should I trust them?
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