Brave Software, the company behind the next generation web browser that promises to offer a fast and secure browsing experience has raised $4.5 million in seed funding. The company behind Brave web browser announced the new development in a press release earlier today.
The company raised its seed investment from a group of leading venture capital firms and angel investors including Founders Fund’s FF Angel, Propel Venture Partners, Pantera capital, Foundation Capital and Digital Currency Group. With the latest investment of $4.5 million, the company’s total fundraising till date stands at $7 million. Brave had raised about $2.5 million from private angel investors in the past.
Unlike other browsers, Brave allows its users to choose whether they want to see advertisements or not. The open source browser with an inbuilt ad blocker prevents cookies and trackers from accessing user data. In addition, the browser comes integrated with bitcoin wallet, enabling micropayments between the end user and ad networks.
Brave Ledger, the Bitcoin based micropayments system automates the process of sharing ad revenues with websites, while proving a better privacy preserving ad model for all the parties. IN a statement about the browser’s features, the President and CEO of Brave Software, Brendan Eich says,
“Online advertisers have been exploiting user data for years without consent, sometimes even infecting devices with malware. It’s no wonder that 200 million users worldwide have adopted ad-blocking to defend themselves. Viewing content on the Internet should not come at the expense of one’s safety… The Brave solution fends off intrusive ads and stops the collection of personal details by third parties, enhancing not just browsing speed, but security and privacy. With Brave, users can now fight back and keep their data private and defensible on their devices, while still supporting the content they wish to view via micropayments.”
With the influx of more capital, Brave will now be able to come up with newer versions of the software while preparing for the release of Brave 1.0 next month.