SigmaOS Raises $4m to Develop the Next Generation Browser Designed for Productive Work Online

SigmaOS – the Y Combinator-backed browser startup on a mission to make Mac users’ working days more productive and less distracted – has raised $4 million in a seed stage funding round led by LocalGlobe. Y Combinator, 7percent Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Shine VC, TrueSight Ventures, Pioneer Fund, Venture Together also participated. Angel investors joining the round included Cocoa Ventures partner Carmen Alfonso Rico, and Matteo Franceschetti, founder of sleep fitness technology startup, Eightsleep.

SigmaOS is a browser specifically designed to enable fast and focused online work. Co-founder and CEO Mahyad Ghassemibouyaghchi believes that the world’s most popular browsers, including Safari and Chrome, were created decades ago, purely for searches, at a time when most of the working day was spent on native apps or offline. However, now we live and work on the web, and browsers need reinventing.

Mahyad realised he consistently felt “exhausted” after being forced to switch between different windows and tabs while doing research for a new startup idea. The founder also had a personal motivation for creating a solution to this common problem – he had recently received an adult ADHD diagnosis and wanted new tools to help with focus and improve productivity.

“Context-switching is very mentally heavy, and having the segmentation that our browser provides, and being able to do everything from one place, really helps,” he says. “Our idea is that you focus on doing your best work, while we take care of organising and making you focused.”

The founder grew up in Iran and moved to the UK six years ago to study software engineering at King’s College London. Mahyad arrived “with a backpack and a couple of thousand pounds in my pocket to take on the world”. He started SigmaOS in early 2021 with his two co-founders Ali Attar and Saurav Mitra. Ali has always cared deeply about a better browser experience. Rockmelt (released when he was 13 years old) was the first piece of software he deeply cared about, and to which he referred friends even at such an early age. The same goes for Saurav, who has always tried to find the path of least resistance when it comes to working on his computer – a passion that was exacerbated by his discovery of the text-editing software Vim.

Just months after building their prototype browser, the team was selected to participate in the renowned Y Combinator accelerator.

“We want to be a generation-defining browser”

Using SigmaOS means never again being distracted by email notifications that pop up just as you reach creative flow. Gone are the days of having 57 tabs minimised at the bottom of the screen and long-forgotten bookmarks cluttering the search bar. SigmaOS has redesigned the browser experience from the ground up. It has only one browser window, with all projects and resources organised into personalised workspaces.

Workspace tabs are laid out in a single vertical, like a to-do list. Typically a user might have one workspace for finances, and another for work projects or university courses. Users can choose and modify workspace templates to match their working style, and snooze tabs when they aren’t working on something. Early adopters already include startup founders, creatives and students.

SigmaOS allows chrome extensions, provides a universal ad-block, and offers a first-in-class split-screen function. The browser uses Apple Keychain to protect users’ passwords, and all user data is secured by end-to-end encryption. The browser also offers real collaboration within its browser – a function not offered by any rival. People can share workspaces with classmates, colleagues, and friends without opening another app.

Productivity Youtuber Ali Abdaal, who has millions of followers, says: “SigmaOS’s the best browser I’ve ever used. I didn’t know what I was missing with Chrome until I switched to SigmaOS. My tabs are beautifully organised into workspaces, and I save so much time with the keyboard shortcuts and ease of navigation.”

Building on momentum

The seed funding round has allowed SigmaOS to expand its team from three to five software experts, and will now fuel the further development and roll-out of its market-first product.

SigmaOS has already begun generating revenue. The startup has acquired tens of thousands of users based in over 100 countries. The US, the UK and France are among locations seeing the most take-up. SigmaOS is currently accruing users at 40% month-on-month, with around 30% of these users already subscribing at $10/month or more. Accolades to date include being named *Product of the Month* by US tech review site, Product Hunt.

Mahyad said: “The way we use computers has changed dramatically as our time is increasingly spent online. It’s time for a new generation of browser – one that is better designed and more intuitive. We want SigmaOS to be a browser that improves everyone’s working lives, helping them work effortlessly with all their web apps. We want to change how people live and work on the web forever.”

Ziv Reichert, Partner at LocalGlobe, said: “Truth is that ‘modern’ web browsers have not evolved an awful lot over the last two decades. Innovation has remained mostly incremental, with browsers opting to jam-pack features on top of legacy UIs vs outright rethinking the fundamentals. Meanwhile, internet penetration has continued to skyrocket in conjunction with average time spent online. 4bn+ people now spend the bulk of their waking hours inside of browsers – working, socialising, creating and consuming content. With SigmaOS, the online experience will be vastly better for all. Mahyad, Ali and Saurav are building a 21st century browser from first principles, one that caters to the complex needs of today’s internet users.”