Nord Security

Overview
Nord Security is a cybersecurity and online-privacy company founded in Lithuania and best known for NordVPN, a virtual private network service first released in 2012. Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, childhood friends who have served as co-CEOs, are its best-known co-founders; the company's leadership page also names Jonas Karklys as co-founder. Its portfolio now spans consumer and business products, including NordVPN, NordLayer, NordPass, NordLocker, NordStellar and Saily, and it has shared a holding company with Surfshark since 2022. After a decade of bootstrapped growth, Nord Security raised its first outside capital in April 2022 and reached a USD 3 billion valuation in September 2023.

Why this entity matters
Nord Security is one of the clearest European examples of a consumer software company that reached unicorn scale without venture capital, raising its first external round only after a decade of profitable growth. That path is a useful counter-case for founders in Germany, Austria and Switzerland weighing early venture funding against revenue-funded growth. The company is also part of the Baltic technology cluster around Vilnius, which has produced several large software companies in a short period. Finally, its shift from a single consumer VPN product to a broader set of business security tools, including network access and threat-exposure management, reflects how cybersecurity budgets in Europe are moving from individual tools toward integrated platforms.

Company history and product
NordVPN launched in 2012, initially as a Windows configuration according to the company's timeline, and reached about 10,000 users in 2014. Wikipedia notes that the business was initially supported by Tesonet, a Lithuanian accelerator and incubator. The product line widened over the following decade: NordPass for password management, NordLocker for encrypted file storage, and NordVPN Teams, which was renamed NordLayer in 2021 and moved toward business network-access services. In October 2021 the group acquired Atlas VPN, and in early 2022 Nord Security and Surfshark combined under one holding company, bringing Surfshark's VPN, antivirus, alert, search and Incogni services into the same group. NordStellar, a threat-exposure management service for businesses, followed in 2024, as did NordProtect, an identity-theft protection product. The company's 2026 timeline also lists NordLayer Browser and HangUp, and its product navigation includes Coveron and the Saily travel eSIM. On funding, the company was bootstrapped until April 2022, when Novator Ventures led a USD 100 million round with Burda Principal Investments and General Catalyst, valuing it at USD 1.6 billion; at the time it reported about 1,700 employees. In September 2023 Warburg Pincus led a further USD 100 million round at a USD 3 billion valuation, with existing investors participating, and the company reported about 2,000 employees.

Role in the startup and technology landscape of Germany, Austria and Switzerland
Nord Security is not based in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, but its products are widely used by consumers and small businesses in these markets, and Burda Principal Investments participated in both its 2022 and its 2023 funding rounds. For Startuprad.io readers, Nord Security is mainly relevant as a reference case: a Central and Eastern European software company that grew to global scale, stayed founder-led and only took outside capital late. It also illustrates the growing demand from small and mid-sized European companies for business-grade security services such as network access control, password management and dark-web monitoring, a demand sharpened by European rules such as NIS2.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Co-founders: Tomas Okmanas; Eimantas Sabaliauskas; Jonas Karklys (per company page). Early supporter: Tesonet (per Wikipedia). Group companies and brands: NordVPN; NordLayer; NordPass; NordLocker; NordStellar; Saily; Coveron; Surfshark (same holding company since 2022); Atlas VPN (acquired October 2021). Investors: Novator Ventures (lead, April 2022); Burda Principal Investments (2022 and 2023); General Catalyst (2022); Warburg Pincus (lead, September 2023). Angel investors in 2022 included Ilkka Paananen (Supercell), Miki Kuusi (Wolt) and Matt Mullenweg (Automattic). Startuprad.io: cooperation partner.

Startuprad.io relevance
Nord Security has cooperated with Startuprad.io. It is listed among Startuprad.io's selected cooperations at https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner and among the organisations Startuprad.io has worked with at https://www.startuprad.io/aboutus/recognition . The entity links into Startuprad.io's coverage of cybersecurity, European scale-ups and bootstrapped growth paths.

Nord Security appears in the following Startuprad.io editorial piece.

Startuprad.io Turns 12: What Twelve Years of Startup Conversations Taught Us
Published: 31 October 2026
Last updated: 31 October 2026
Coverage type: Anniversary feature (cooperation acknowledgement)
https://www.startuprad.io/post/startuprad-io-turns-12-what-twelve-years-of-startup-conversations-taught-us

Public source context
This profile draws on Nord Security's own pages https://nordsecurity.com/about-us , https://nordsecurity.com/blog/nord-security-raises-outside-capital-16-B-valuation and https://nordsecurity.com/blog/nord-security-raised-another-100m-investment-round , Tech.eu's report on the 2022 round https://tech.eu/2022/04/06/nord-security-secures-100-million-at-16-billion-valuation , the Wikipedia article https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nord_Security (founding background, corporate structure and product history), Startuprad.io's partner list https://www.startuprad.io/become-a-partner and recognition page https://www.startuprad.io/aboutus/recognition , and Startuprad.io's coverage archive listed above.

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Canonical record: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/nord-security