Tailscale Raises $160M Funding, Valued at $1.5B

Tailscale Inc., a Canadian startup specializing in secure networking solutions, has raised $160 million in Series C funding, boosting its valuation to $1.5 billion. The round was led by Accel and included participation from several notable investors, including George Kurtz of Crowdstrike and Anthony Casalena of Squarespace. Tailscale's platform enables organizations to establish direct, encrypted connections between systems without relying on traditional VPN gateways, enhancing performance and security. The new funding will support global expansion and the development of its engineering and sales teams, particularly to meet the growing demand from AI companies using its software. Tailscale aims to simplify complex networking challenges while fostering a zero-trust environment for its users. The company's customer base has rapidly grown to over 10,000 organizations, including major tech firms like SAP and Hugging Face.