Strong on privacy search engine DuckDuckGo has struck a partnership with OMERS Ventures (OV), part of the $95 billion global OMERS pension fund, based in Canada.
The search engine said on its official blog that OV’s shared interest in privacy, & investment in DuckDuckGo would help the latter continue expanding its privacy protections across the globe.
DuckDuckGo has been a profitable company since 2014, & its USP is that it does not store or share any personal information of users.
By partnering with OMERS, we hope to bring our profitable privacy-centric business model to more places.
DuckDuckGo said the partnership comes at just the right time as the need for privacy continues to grow globally. In a July 2018 survey of 667 Canadian adults showed that 43% had taken a significant online privacy action, such as installing “browser extensions to block Web trackers.”
Additionally, 53% of Canadians say that having a search engine that “didn’t collect any personal data about me or my searches” would be among the top two motivations to switch search engines. Privacy is alive and mainstream in Canada, just like in many other parts of the globe.
A report in SearchEngineLand said DuckDuckGo will receive US$10-million investment through a partnership with OMERS to help the search engine continue expanding its privacy protection worldwide.
Chief Executive of OMERS Ventures, John Ruffalo, was quoted by the The Global and Mail (subscription required) that they “went out very aggressively” to pursue an investment in DuckDuckGo.
