Backed by Sequoia Southeast Asia, SquareX protects web users with disposable browsers

Much of our computing time is spent in a web browser, where we check email, create documents, transfer files, do online banking, shop or stream entertainment. This leaves us vulnerable to security threats like phishing, identity theft and session hijacking, but many cybersecurity tools were created when the main threats were file viruses, worms and network attacks, said Vivek Ramachandran, the entrepreneur and cyber security researcher who discovered the Cafe Latte attack. .

To combat browser-based vulnerabilities, Ramachandran founded SquareX. The Singapore-based cybersecurity startup announced today that it has raised $6 million in seed funding from Southeast Asia’s Sequoia Capital, which it will use in R&D engineering and its go-to-market plans.

SquareX aims to serve as an alternative to current cybersecurity products, tailor-made for browser-based cloud SaaS tools. It integrates with browsers as an extension and allows users to open links and files in single-use browsers that serve as temporary container sandboxes. Headless browsers run in SquareX’s data centers so threats don’t reach users’ computers and they don’t have to worry about their personal information being exposed.

Before launching SquareX, Ramachandran was the founder of Pentester Academy, a cloud-based cybersecurity training startup that allows users and businesses to study how hackers break into their company. Pentester Academy was acquired by INE in 2021.

SquareX founder Vivek Ramachandran

Ramachandran told TechCrunch that while running Pentester Academy, their customers complained about how often users disabled their security products because they were hindering their productivity. For example, someone in the process of receiving an important Word document from a contact would have that file flagged as malware and end up disabling their security software to view it. As a result, Ramachandran realized that many security products are actually counterproductive because they make people less likely to use them.

As a result, he created SquareX, which does not block access to files or resources, even when they have been classified as potentially malicious. Instead, use their disposable browsers. Ramachandran said SquareX is intended as an alternative to VPN, antivirus, anti-malware and other endpoint security solutions.

SquareX’s disposable browsers enable anonymous browsing from any location. Users can “delete” at any time, which means no data is retained and the browser session is destroyed and immediately removed from SquareX’s servers. Ramachandran said it is more secure and private than incognito mode because the websites a user visits or files they download are not stored on their computer.

“By creating single-use environments, SquareX ensures that a user’s identity and data are decoupled when accessing the Internet,” he added. “This ensures that even the most sophisticated website trackers would not be able to track and record users’ activities and link them to their identity.”

SquareX’s go-to-market strategy will first focus on the US, UK and Asia.

In a statement on the funding, Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Sequoia Southeast Asia partner at Surge, said: “The online world is about to get a lot worse as the AI ​​revolution is channeled towards creating malicious code. All cybersecurity solutions out there are only probabilistically successful in protecting internet users, which isn’t very comfortable if they get hacked and lose money. SquareX is the first solution we’ve seen to adopt a 100% protection approach, where no matter how new and sophisticated the attack, it has no chance of infecting users. This is the future we believe all Internet users deserve.”