Brave Browser: This company raised $35m in 30 seconds

<em>(Source: Brave Press Releases)</em>

The signal: Brave, a privacy-first browser, is intent on disrupting Google’s business model through its unique advertising platform, which profit shares 70% of ad revenue. Unlike conventional ad programs, ad-matching is performed on the user’s device, never exposing people’s data to third parties.

The company is growing users at an exponential rate -- it raised $35m in 30 seconds through an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of its Basic Attention Token (BAT).

The opportunity: People are increasingly concerned with their privacy. Although Brave has effectively targeted the browser space, there are still a wealth of commonly used products that function off of selling or abusing user privacy. Products have even been made to help users identify these products, like No More Google.

And a focus on privacy is universal: Brave reports that its user base is pretty evenly distributed across North America (33-35%), Europe (30%), and elsewhere.