Cisco Backs Startup Island

August 2, 2022

Island has secured an investment from Cisco Investments, further fueling Island’s mission to redefine the role of the browser for the enterprise. Island’s Enterprise Browser provides organizations with complete control over the last mile of user interaction with Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and web applications to enable a simpler and stronger security posture, while improving productivity for users and their supporting IT and security functions.

The investment from Cisco Investments supplements Island’s recent $115M Series B funding round. The round was led by insiders Insight Partners with additional investments from Stripes and Sequoia, bringing Island’s total funds raised to more than $200 million and pushing the company’s valuation over $1.3B.

“Cisco continues to have a profound impact on every aspect of IT, collaboration, networking and security, across every industry and every corner of the planet,” said Mike Fey, Island co-founder and CEO. “We are delighted to add Cisco Investments as a strategic investor and look forward to a long-term collaborative relationship.”

“With the rise of hybrid work, the majority of global employees are working within a web browser, elevating browser functionality to be the operating system of an organization. The enterprise browser has the potential to deliver security, privacy and simplicity to the last mile experience of that environment,” said Janey Hoe, vice president, Corporate Development at Cisco.

The Island Enterprise Browser

The Island Enterprise Browser is the desktop of the future, enabling organizations to protect users and data at the very point where they interact with SaaS and internal web applications. By using the Island Enterprise Browser, security teams fully control the last mile of connection to employees, from basic protections such as copy, paste, download, upload, and screenshot capture, to more advanced security demands such as data redaction, watermarking, and multi-factor authentication insertion. These functionalities create unprecedented opportunities across a growing number of enterprise use cases, including securing critical SaaS and internal web applications from data leakage, safe access for contractors and BYOD workers, and full governance over privileged user accounts. It also delivers a native user experience for the hybrid worker in contrast to costly and poor-performing virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), while supporting built-in safe browsing, web filtering, web isolation, exploit prevention, and Zero Trust network access at much lower costs.