Google found itself in President Trump’s timeline being accused of biased search results. While the search giant denies those claims, Google has received more grounded criticism over how it handles user privacy and data. For DuckDuckGo, it represents yet another opportunity to convert users, and now it has a tidy amount of cash from investors to do so.
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One of the only private search alternatives to Google, the privacy-focused DuckDuckGo quietly raised $10 million from OMERS Ventures last week, a Canadian pension fund that has invested in a number of startups.
According to Search Engine Journal, there was little need for the company to raise more money. DuckDuckGo, which had a last known raise of $3 million in 2011, has been profitable since 2014. However, the new funding could help DuckDuckGo expand its education-based campaigns concerning the privacy of search engines. The company has also developed a privacy app that blocks scripts from tracking visitors, and it’s possible more privacy-focused applications are in the pipeline.
Still, $10 million is not a substantial amount of money when competing against Google. But for those looking for alternatives to Google, DuckDuckGo appears healthy and quite content with making money off of keyword-based ads alone.
Illustration Credit: Li Anne Dias
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