Passbolt SA, the developer of credential and password access management software for organizations, said Thursday it has raised $8 million in early-stage funding to help companies meet complex securities needs when handling passwords.

The Series A round was led by new investor Airbridge Equity Partners and joined by existing investors Expon Capital’s Digital Tech Fund, ScaleFund, Seeder, Dedicated, Bondi Capital, Carricha Capital and LBAN.

Passbolt provides fully open-source software that allows organizations to self-host and control accounts, credentials and secrets such as passwords, keys and other elements used by people (such as system administrators, employees and others) as well as machines (devices and applications). This can include everything from web passwords, SSH keys, API keys, common method two-factor authentication or multifactor authentication.

It also uses end-to-end encryption and open standards based on OpenPGP, an open and extensible encryption protocol well-known in the industry for its robust security standards. Everything Passbolt does happens within a company’s firewall and allows for full private control.

Password management is important because it allows companies to create strong, unique passwords for every account. Unique passwords are difficult to remember, but using the same password across multiple accounts or simple passwords makes accounts easier for hackers to breach.

That threat rises when secure access is needed for remote workers who need passwords generated for internal accounts. The widespread use of mobile devices and common practice of remote work has made it necessary to adequately lock down passwords and other credentials when outside of the office.

“Organizations are trapped between consumer-focused password managers and complex monolithic enterprise solutions that don’t meet the need for secure collaboration of agile teams operating in digital environments,” said Kevin Muller, co-founder and chief executive of Passbolt. “We’re building a new type of credential and access manager for organizations of all sizes.”

The service includes a full-featured community edition, Passbolt CE, and a commercial enterprise edition, Passbolt Pro, which comes with support options. For companies looking for a software-as-a-service solution, the company also offers Passbolt Cloud. It deploys in the cloud or on any server with a management interface and integrates with existing security management tools.

The company said it has brought on more than 40,000 organizations worldwide and has more than 2,000 paid customers. The platform also manages passwords for more than 400,000 daily active users.

With the new funding, Passbolt said that it intends to grow its sales and marketing team to support global operations, build up its customer support and accelerate product development. The fundraise comes at a time when the next milestone will be the major version release, Passbolt 5.0.

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