MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AnchorFree, the global leader in consumer security, privacy and Internet freedom, today announced the acquisition of two smaller rivals: JustVPN and TouchVPN. The two companies will now become subsidiaries of AnchorFree GmbH, the makers of the award-winning privacy app, Hotspot Shield.
AnchorFree launched Hotspot Shield for iOS in late 2011, extending its popular security, privacy and open Web access solution to mobile devices. Hotspot Shield for Android was released six months later. Since then, Hotspot Shield has seen exponential mobile growth, with a triple digit increase over the past year. Globally, more than half of Hotspot Shield’s monthly activity now comes from its mobile app. In addition to privacy, security and access, Hotspot Shield, which compresses data, saved users more than 220 million megabytes (MB) of mobile data usage last year. To support this global demand, AnchorFree recently announced new versions of its popular applications for Apple iOS 8.0 and Android, with new features that make personal privacy, Wi-Fi security and access to the world’s information smarter, easier to use and more secure for iPhone, iPad and Android users.
“We still have a great deal of growth ahead of us,” said Craig Vachon, Corporate Development Leader at AnchorFree. “But the popularity of Hotspot Shield is a testament to the increasing awareness among Internet users that they need to protect themselves on mobile devices from a growing storm of cyber-security and privacy threats. The teams at JustVPN and TouchVPN will help us expand and enhance our current privacy product line and offerings. We envision that the combination of our companies’ technologies may make other VPN companies’ technology obsolete.”
Hotspot Shield VPN, which is free to download, provides a secure connection between smartphones or tablet devices and the Internet, encrypting data, protecting the user’s IP address, and thwarting malware.
“Security and privacy at public Wi-Fi sites is increasingly dubious as hackers are exploiting significant vulnerabilities. We see AnchorFree’s products as must-have apps for anyone using Wi-Fi to access the Internet whether that is in the local coffee shop, an airport lobby or hotel when they travel,” said Vachon, adding that overseas travelers have the added benefit of being able to access U.S. content when abroad because the service substitutes a U.S. IP address.
“We are very excited to join the world’s largest mobile privacy and security company. AnchorFree grows by 200,000 new users each day,” said Alexey Skutin, formerly of TouchVPN. “We look forward to assisting in development of additional new privacy-oriented products to be marketed to AnchorFree’s large base of users.”
The teams at TouchVPN and JustVPN will join the AnchorFree team to provide:
- Security: Encrypts users’ entire Web session, turning all HTTP sites into HTTP(S) and making the entire Web as secure as major banking sites.
- Privacy: Gives users an anonymous IP address, making their personal information untraceable by major companies as they surf the Web and protecting their online activities from prying eyes.
- Access: With VPN technology, each product establishes a secure tunnel between a user’s mobile device or computer and the Internet, allowing users to access an unfettered Web experience.
- Malware Protection: Hotspot Shield blocks tens of millions of malware threats each month across the Web on both desktop and mobile.
Hotspot Shield is the world’s most popular solution for Wi-Fi security, with 300 million downloads to date. Hotspot Shield is available for Android, iOS, PC and Mac. Once installed, Hotspot Shield will run in the background, protecting all applications and Webbrowsing. For more details on the application, visit http://www.hotspotshield.com.
About AnchorFree
AnchorFree’s mission is to provide secure access to the world’s information for every person on the planet. AnchorFree’s Hotspot Shield application is the world’s largest Internet freedom and personal privacy platform and the biggest disrupter of Internet censorship. Downloaded by more than 300 million users across mobile devices and computers; Hotspot Shield is the starting point, for mobile and Web access, making all applications and websites secure, private and accessible.
Funded by $63 million from Goldman Sachs, and other blue chip investors, AnchorFree is focused on bringing online privacy and freedom to the next billion Internet users. AnchorFree is growing by 6 million new downloads of Hotspot Shield per month.
