Intel Acquires Montreal’s PasswordBox
One of Montreal’s most successful born-and-bred web startups is ready to clink the champagne glasses Monday.
Santa Barbara-based Intel has acquired PasswordBox, the mobile and web application that lets users log into websites and mobile apps without having to remember and manually type in their passwords.
Serial entrepreneur Dan Robichaud founded PasswordBox in 2012, launching the company in summer 2013. Now the startup’s technology will become a part of the Safe Identity organization within Intel Security Group.
“PasswordBox has spent the last two years building a product that people love, trust and use around the world every day,” said the CEO Robichaud. “We share Intel Security’s vision of simple, secure access and identity protection across all platforms and devices.”
With 48 employees working out of its Montreal headquarters and over 14 million users, PasswordBox is largely seen as one of Montreal’s success stories.
Robichaud founded the company after he visited his mother in 2011 while she was gathering old family photos to upload to her computer. Unfortunately she was involved in a small car accident while Robichaud was visiting. “And it made me think, ‘what would happen to my digital files if something were to ever happen to me?’”
The service allows users to create one master password, which then 26-character unique strong passwords to all accounts added to the app. All stored information is locally encrypted and decrypted using the same secure algorithm that the US government uses.
In November 2013 the company raised $6 million in a round led by OMERS Ventures. A week later it quickly acquired a competitor in Silicon Valley-based Legacy Locker, a digital afterlife service that grants friends and family access to one’s online assets after they pass away. The company was also named Best Mobile App at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
“We share a common mission – to enrich the lives of our users, and make each user’s online experience as secure and seamless as possible,” wrote the startup’s Director of Product Marketing, Maeghan Smulders. “Now, with the expertise, resources and support of Intel Security behind us, the possibilities of what we can build tomorrow – and how many people’s lives we can positively impact – are extraordinary.”
Intel Security will offer all new and existing users a free premium subscription until the release of a new product from Intel Security.
