Will Enterprise Browsers Become the Norm for Businesses?

It’s not very often that we see an entirely new ‘genre’ emerge in tech, but that is exactly what’s happened with the development of the enterprise browser.

A few startups have recently planted their flags in this fresh technological territory, heralding a safer way for businesses to operate. One firm, Island, was founded only a couple of years ago, and achieved a $1.3 billion valuation this year after a chunky $115 million Series B. Since then, it’s had another $10 million windfall from Cisco, highlighting the confidence being placed in enterprise browsers.

The web browser is one of the most elegant and enduring software applications of the modern age, but is it still fit for purpose for businesses and other organisations? It’s natural to ask this question, particularly in the radically decentralized post-pandemic world, where companies have embraced new ways of working which bring unprecedented security concerns.

Enterprise browsers seek to alleviate these concerns by having the necessary security measures baked in. They are, quite simply, browsers for enterprise use rather than everyday consumer browsing. In the words of Island’s co-founders, such browsers “put the organization in complete control of how its users, apps, and data interact.”

Enterprise browsers allow organisations to tackle security challenges relating to two major shifts in how billions of employees work.

First up, cloud migration. Widespread adoption of services delivered through web browsers has brought numerous benefits to businesses across virtually all industries. The rich array of SaaS platforms provided by both brave new startups and legacy software giants have become integral to how companies manage workflows, optimise data streams and retain customers. 

Second, there’s the remote working revolution. We all know that employees are now enjoying unprecedented flexibility in how they work. Clocking in at the office, and adhering to fixed hours among your colleagues every working day, now seems a quaint notion in many sectors. And even when colleagues do congregate in offices, the widespread BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach means they’ll often be working on their laptops and smartphones.  

Both of these trends have helped companies work in a more agile way, better catering to the needs of clients and staff alike. But running operations from the cloud, and allowing employees to access critical systems from their own devices and unsecure networks, comes with a trade-off: increased vulnerability to threats.

Rather than surrounding browsers with “an endless stack of heavy, expensive and inefficient tools” (in the words Island’s co-founders), organisations may now implement enterprise browsers instead.

This can empower them to centralize security management, with senior figures governing whether employees and contractors can download files, copy and paste content, and take screen grabs. Web filtering and isolation, exploit prevention, and redaction of sensitive data can all be centrally controlled. Managers can also track all user activity and feed the data into analytics platforms so there’s complete transparency on all aspects of browser-based operations.

Enterprise browsers may be new kids on the block as far as software solutions go, but there are already some key players jockeying for position in this nascent market.

Based in Dallas but with R&D operations in Israel, Island was founded by industry veterans Mike Fey (former CTO of McAfee) and Dan Amiga (founder of a cybersecurity startup that was acquired by Symantec). Fuelled by massive investment, Island emerged from stealth in February 2022 with its product based on Chromium, the open-sourced browser project which underpins the likes of Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge. 

In an interview with VentureBeat, Fey hailed the browser as a way to “take entire systems, entire SaaS environments, and make them a closed-loop environment. We can make sure no employee data is ever lost.”

The technology has been described as “revolutionary” and as having “the potential to reimagine the industry” by two managing partners of firms that had invested in the startup. Island’s product is already being used by a number of clients, including specialty materials manufacturer Ashland. Earlier this year, Ashland reported that over 4,000 employees had begun using Salesforce, Workday and Microsoft Office through Island’s enterprise browser.

The other big contender in this space is Talon Cyber Security, which – like Island’s research team – is based in Israel. A further similarity between the startups is that Talon is also being spearheaded by tech veterans: Ofer Ben-Noon and Ohad Bobrov, both of whom have previously founded cybersecurity firms. Talon launched its enterprise browser last year, touting it as the “first line of defense” for distributed workforces, and a seamless alternative for organisations that “were forced to quickly patch security gaps using their current IT stack.”

The humble web browser, a stalwart since the very earliest days of the internet, is now more important to businesses than ever. So it stands to reason that consumer-grade versions must surely be given an evolutionary push if they are to remain viable tools in the corporate sphere.

That, at any rate, is what the founders of firms like Island and Talon firmly believe, and investors have certainly taken notice (Talon raised $100 million just days before the writing of this blog post).

Their concerns make sense – security vulnerability database CVE Details ranks browsers like Chrome and Firefox as the most vulnerable applications, and we’ve seen malware like Jupyter suck up data from unsuspecting users’ browsers.

The problem is real, but the question is whether enterprise browsers will become the norm, or whether they’ll be a damp squib. As a recent opinion piece on the Island vs Talon rivalry put it, “The main question is if enterprises will really succeed in getting their users to forego the browsers that they know and love in order to work with a more secure browser.”

It will be very interesting to see how things pan out, and which other startups will join the enterprise browser fray.

Hampleton Partners is at the forefront of international mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance advisory for companies with technology at their core. Hampleton’s experienced deal makers have built, bought and sold over 100 fast-growing tech businesses and provide hands-on expertise and unrivalled advice to tech entrepreneurs and companies which are looking to accelerate growth and maximise value.

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