Mozilla, the developer of the Firefox web browser, today invested an undisclosed amount in Cliqz, a Germany-based search engine technology producer that is majority owned by media group Hubert Burda.
Founded in 2008 and majority owned by Hubert Burda since 2013, Cliqz develops browsers and browser extensions that have search engines integrated into them, allowing users to launch private searches without being tracked.
The Cliqz browser is available for Android, iOS, Windows, Mac and Linux, and it launched a Firefox add-on in 2014. It has been primarily built for German language searches, but founder and CEO Jean-Paul Schmetz told TechCrunch it plans to expand to other countries in future.
Mark Mayo, senior vice-president of Mozilla Firefox said: “Mozilla is excited to work with Cliqz because we see how their products align with the Mozilla mission. We are proud to help advance the privacy-focused innovation from Cliqz through this strategic investment in their company.”
Jean-Paul Schmetz, founder and managing director of Cliqz, added: “Mozilla is the ideal company for Cliqz to work with because we both believe in an open internet where people have control over their data.
“Data and search are our core competencies and it makes us proud to contribute our search and privacy technologies to the Mozilla ecosystem.”