Skype founder backs collaboration platform Wire in €24m funding round

16 Aug 2022

Wire co-founder Alan Duric. Image: Wire

The funding round co-led by Skype’s Janus Friis brings the total amount raised by collaboration tech start-up Wire to €53m.

Berlin-based encrypted collaboration start-up Wire has raised €24m in fresh funding, with backing from the co-founder of Skype.

With an increase in remote working and the threat of cyberattacks growing, secure collaboration online is crucial for governments and enterprises.

Wire aims to meet this demand with its platform for messaging, file sharing, video and voice calling, built with end-to-end encryption. The company has more than 1,800 government and enterprise customers worldwide, including five of the world’s G7 governments.

“The need for secure communications is constantly growing,” said Skype co-founder Janus Friis, who Wire said has been a supporter of the platform since it was launched.

“With its end-to-end encryption that has been independently audited and its code that is open source, Wire allows any organisation to deploy a communication product they can trust.”

The latest funding round was co-led by growth equity firm Cipio Partners and Friis’ investment vehicle Iconical. It brings the total amount raised by Wire to date to €53m.

Last April, Wire secured $21m in a funding round led by UVC Partners, a venture capital firm based in Munich and Berlin that invests in B2B companies.

Wire said at the time it would invest the funds in further product development and growing its headcount across its Berlin headquarters and offices in Switzerland and San Francisco.

The start-up had previously raised investment from backers such as Elysium Venture Capital and Morpheus Ventures.

The latest funding will be used to invest further in Wire’s technology and to support market-wide platform interoperability to help make online collaboration more secure.

Alan Duric, co-founder and co-managing director of Wire, said that the company wants to help its clients with the “challenges of managing and securing remote working models”.

“We will continue to work to offer our customers complete peace of mind that their data is safe, whilst retaining our position as the undisputed leader in the secure collaboration space.”

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Vish Gain is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com