Who owns the VPNs: all 45 owner groups
45 owner groups stand behind the 83 VPNs in our data. 45 owner groups (parent and sub-groups counted separately); 45 of them are top owner groups (the highest operating company in each owner chain, never an investment fund). The 10 biggest top owner groups are Nord Security (8), Point Wild (7), Gen Digital Inc. (6), Ziff Davis, Inc. (6), Innovative Connecting Pte. Ltd. (Qihoo 360-linked network) (5), Kape Technologies (5), PureSquare / Gaditek (3), Malwarebytes (2), McAfee (2), Proton AG (2). Each owner page lists its brands, companies, licences and fines and legal actions, with sources. Counts are brands, not websites: one brand on several country domains counts once.
| Owner | Ownership | HQ | VPNs | Fines |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nord Security | private (founder-owned; minority investors Novator, Burda Principal Investments, General Catalyst, Warburg Pincus) | Lithuania | 8 | |
| Point Wild | private (formed Dec 2024 by merger of Pango Group and Total Security; ProPrivacy names WC SACD Holdings Inc. as ultimate parent of Pango) | United States | 7 | 1 |
| Gen Digital Inc. | listed (NASDAQ:GEN) | United States / Czech Republic | 6 | 3 |
| Ziff Davis, Inc. | listed (NASDAQ:ZD) | United States | 6 | 1 |
| Innovative Connecting Pte. Ltd. (Qihoo 360-linked network) | subsidiary of Lemon Seed Technology (Cayman), which Qihoo 360 reported acquiring in 2019 (per Tech Transparency Project) | Singapore | 5 | 2 |
| Kape Technologies | private (Teddy Sagi via Unikmind Holdings; taken private and delisted from AIM in 2023) | United Kingdom | 5 | 1 |
| PureSquare / Gaditek | private (Gaditek, family-founded; PureSquare launched 2023 as brand parent) | Pakistan (operating) / BVI (contracting entity) | 3 | 1 |
| Malwarebytes | private (founder-led; Vector Capital USD 100m minority investment 2022) | United States | 2 | |
| McAfee | private (consortium led by Advent International and Permira, with Crosspoint Capital, CPP Investments, GIC and ADIA; ~USD 14bn take-private announced Nov 2021) | United States | 2 | |
| Proton AG | foundation (non-profit Proton Foundation is the largest voting shareholder since 2024) | Switzerland | 2 | 1 |
| Urban Cyber Security Inc. (Urban VPN) | private (security researchers report affiliation with data broker BiScience / B.I Science (2009) Ltd) | 2 | ||
| WCOMES Technologies Co. Ltd. | private (two mainland Chinese shareholders per TTP) | Hong Kong | 2 | |
| Air (AirVPN operator) | private | Italy | 1 | |
| Amagicom AB (Mullvad) | private (founder-owned Amagicom AB) | Sweden | 1 | 1 |
| Aura | private (venture-backed) | United States | 1 | |
| Bitdefender | private | Romania | 1 | |
| Brave New Software Project, Inc. (Lantern) | non-profit (US 501(c)(3), EIN 27-3272909) | United States | 1 | |
| Certida, LLC | private | United States | 1 | |
| Cloudflare, Inc. | listed (NYSE:NET) | United States | 1 | |
| Connectify, Inc. | private | United States | 1 | |
| ESET, spol. s r.o. | private | Slovakia | 1 | |
| eVenture Limited (hide.me) | private | Malaysia | 1 | |
| F-Secure Corporation | listed (Nasdaq Helsinki:FSECURE) | Finland | 1 | |
| Free Connected Limited / LightningLink Networks (X-VPN) | private (TTP reports ownership by Chengdu Zhuozhuo Technology, China) | Hong Kong / Singapore | 1 | |
| FREE VPN PLANET S.R.L. (Planet VPN) | private (owners not named) | Romania | 1 | |
| Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.) | listed (NASDAQ:GOOGL) | United States | 1 | |
| Hola VPN Ltd. / Hola Networks | private (founder-owned) | Israel | 1 | |
| iTop Inc. | private (owners not named) | 1 | ||
| IVPN Limited | private (owners not named on its own pages) | Gibraltar | 1 | |
| Kaspersky (AO Kaspersky Lab) | private (founder Eugene Kaspersky) | Russia | 1 | 1 |
| KeepSolid Inc. | private | United States | 1 | |
| Microsoft Corporation | listed (NASDAQ:MSFT) | United States | 1 | |
| Miss Group | private (backed by private equity investor Perwyn) | Sweden | 1 | |
| Mozilla Corporation | subsidiary of the not-for-profit Mozilla Foundation | United States | 1 | |
| Ookla, LLC (Accenture) | subsidiary of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN) since 2026 | United States | 1 | |
| OpenVPN Inc. | private | United States | 1 | |
| Opera Limited | listed (NASDAQ:OPRA); about 68% held by Kunlun Tech (China) via Hong Kong Kunlun Tech Holding | Norway | 1 | |
| Privado Networks ehf | private (owners not named) | Iceland | 1 | |
| Psiphon Inc. | private | Canada | 1 | |
| Trend Micro Incorporated | listed (TSE:4704) | Japan | 1 | |
| VeePN Corp. | private (owners not named) | Panama | 1 | |
| Veloxee Corp. (Astrill) | private (owners not named) | Liechtenstein | 1 | |
| VTNV Solutions Limited (Le VPN) | private | unclear | 1 | |
| WatchGuard Technologies (Panda Security) | private (Vector Capital majority shareholder since 2022) | United States | 1 | |
| Windscribe Limited | private (founder-owned) | Canada | 1 | 1 |
