OpenDNS raises $35 million
DNS service provider OpenDNS has raised $35 million in Series C funding, doubling its total raised capital to date, according to the company.
The laundry list of participating venture capitalists comprised Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, Glynn Capital, Cisco, Evolution Equity, Lumia Capital, Mohr Davidow Ventures, and Northgate Capital.
The company offers DNS-based security services for enterprises, such as malware and phishing detection, and content filtering for schools and universities.
CEO David Ulevitch said in a blog post that OpenDNS has over 50 million daily users. Its prices range from $28 t $42 per user per year.
Symantec gets into the DNS game with Dyn
Symantec has partnered with Dyn to offer a free DNS service to mobile Norton users.
As part of its new mobile strategy, expected to be announced later today, Symantec will provide free DNS resolution with a built-in filter that blocks potentially dangerous domains.
Dyn.com will provide the back-end, which will compete with the likes of OpenDNS and Google’s DNS service.
Non-technical users will be able to download a client application that configures their local DNS to work with the service, which drops one barrier to entry.
Symantec reportedly expects to earn revenue from advertising links – presumably by intercepting NXDOMAIN responses and providing sponsored error pages.
So the deal could be a bit of a money-spinner for Dyn; it’s certainly a further validation of its service.
But is it sexy? Hmm…
OpenDNS serves 1% of the internet
OpenDNS, the free DNS resolution provider, said today it has 18 million users on its books, meaning it now provides DNS for more than 1% of the world’s internet users.
The percentage is based on the estimate that there are 1.67 billion internet users.
“One percent of all of the world’s Internet users is a momentous achievement and our growth rate indicates that number will climb at an even more rapid pace going forward,” said CEO David Ulevitch.
When OpenDNS launched in 2006, I couldn’t really see the need.
But since then, the company has added services such as URL filtering, which have become popular with the 25,000-odd schools on the company’s customer roster.
Far more useful to domain-buying adults such as me and you is the company’s CacheCheck, which enables you to manually update OpenDNS’s cache of any given domain. Over the years, this has often proven to be an invaluable time saver when meddling with my domains’ DNS records.
Gossip: DNS incest T-shirts, etc…
Eight domain name stories I would loved to have looked into in more detail today:
- Cricket Liu of Infoblox: DNSCurve is a distraction. David Ulevitch of OpenDNS: DNSSEC community is “embarrassing” and “incestuous”. Liu demands T-shirt reflecting same.
- Bored? Want to make enemies and influence people? Why not apply to join the ICANN board? Attractive package includes three all-expenses (continue reading)
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