The creator of Signal, Moxie Marlinspike, has announced that the co-founder of messaging app Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) WhatsApp, Brian Acton, has invested approximately $50 million in the secure messaging application. Acton will also join hands with Signal Foundation which was recently started. The co-founder of WhatsApp quit Facebook last year in September. This was three years after their messaging application was acquired by the social media giant at a price of $19 billion.
Security experts strongly recommend Signal due to the end-to-end encryption protocol it employs and which allows only the recipient and the sender to read the messages. The protocol prevents the interception of texts by third parties. This has made Signal popular as a messaging application in the face of concerns over the privacy and security of messages.
Secure communications
Additionally Signal offers a solution which can be used by other firms when they are looking to building secure communications for their apps. Some of the applications that make use of the Signal code in encrypting their messaging services include Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp.
According to Signal’s creator, the organization behind the secure messaging app has never turned to venture capital or even outside investment. The entity has also operated using scant resources. The cash injection by Acton will help Signal raise the number of employees as well as offer enhanced experiences for users.
“Starting with an initial $50,000,000 in funding, we can now increase the size of our team, our capacity, and our ambitions. This means reduced uncertainty on the path to sustainability, and the strengthening of our long-term goals and values,” Marlinspike wrote on Signal’s blog.
Executive chairman
Besides the financial investment the co-founder of WhatsApp will also become the executive chairman of Signal Foundation and his focus will be in operations as well as product development.
During its several years of existence Signal has never employed over seven members on its staff. In the course of the last couple of years the entity behind Signal has received around $3 million from Open Technology Fund which is run by the U.S. government. Signal’s employees have during that time been using a co-working space located in the Mission district of San Francisco.
