MetaCert
MetaCert is a URL-classification and web-security intelligence company offering a 'Verified as Safe' browser extension, Security API, and MSP channel program that protect consumers, SMBs, and enterprises—particularly the cryptocurrency ecosystem—from phishing, malware, ransomware, and identity theft.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2011
- HeadquartersSan Francisco, United States
- Headcount11–50
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What MetaCert does
MetaCert, founded in 2011 by Paul Walsh in San Francisco, is a cybersecurity company specializing in URL classification and web-security intelligence. Its core platform indexes 20 billion URLs and cryptocurrency wallet addresses, applying a combination of automated tooling, machine learning, and human validation to classify web destinations across categories including malware, phishing, crypto mining, pornography, news reputation, and verified-as-safe. The company's differentiating thesis inverts the conventional blacklist approach: rather than only blocking known threats, MetaCert visually verifies legitimate sites (green shield) and flags unverified ones (grey shield), reducing reliance on user intuition in phishing detection. Intellectual property includes a family of patents covering phishing/malware detection and visual site-identity indicators inside mobile WebViews, and the company's standards-position derives from CEO Walsh's role in co-instigating the W3C URL Classification Standard in 2004.
The product portfolio comprises a consumer and SMB browser extension (Cryptonite) distributed across Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Brave, and Edge; an enterprise Security API (six-line-code integration) for OEMs and developers; a URL Unfurler that resolves shortened URLs across 3,500+ shortening services in under 75 milliseconds; and the MetaCert Verify service for customer-managed whitelabel whitelisting. Revenue is generated through tiered subscriptions (Personal $2.19/month, Professional $4.90/month, Family $4.19-$9.90/month, with Business and Enterprise on custom pricing for 5+ and 50+ seat tiers respectively), enterprise API licensing, and an MSP reseller program that pays margins to channel partners. Payment is accepted in fiat (USD, GBP, CAD, EUR, AUD) or cryptocurrency (BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP, EOS, XVG), reinforcing positioning toward crypto-native buyers.
MetaCert pursues a horizontal segmentation strategy covering consumers, SMBs, enterprises, and a pronounced niche in cryptocurrency security, claiming protection of 2 million+ crypto enthusiasts and 2,000+ SMB and crypto-company customers. Distribution to 200+ financial institutions is achieved indirectly through technology partner Integral. The company is venture-backed (~$2.24M disclosed across rounds from 2012-2018), with an 11-50 employee team that includes executive pedigree from AOL (Walsh), Microsoft VC Relations (Walsh/Sheetal Walsh), Mozilla/AppCoast (Ian Hayward, COO), and several domain advisors spanning payments, child-safety prosecution, and crypto/blockchain investing.
MetaCert firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- MetaCert
- Legal name
- MetaCert Inc.
- Website
- https://metacert.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2011
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 11–50 employees
- Short description
- MetaCert is a URL-classification and web-security intelligence company offering a 'Verified as Safe' browser extension, Security API, and MSP channel program that protect consumers, SMBs, and enterprises—particularly the cryptocurrency ecosystem—from phishing, malware, ransomware, and identity theft.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
MetaCert industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Cybersecurity Software
- akta.pro primary industry
- Browser & Web Isolation Security (HDADAEAK)
Keywords
Where MetaCert is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- San Francisco
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices2 records
Markets served
MetaCert business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Browser Security Software Subscriptions: Subscription-based model with tiered pricing for individuals, families, businesses, and enterprises. Revenue generated from monthly/annual subscriptions with 7-day free trials available. No credit card required for trial. Refund policy available within first 3 months.
- Security API Licensing: Enterprise-grade API providing URL security intelligence to hardware manufacturers and software developers. API integrates with 6 lines of code and provides intelligence on 20 billion URLs.
- MSP Partner Program: Managed Service Provider program where MSPs resell MetaCert to their customers with competitive pricing, exceptional margins, and flexible billing options.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Annual | Personal plan - Individual protection |
| Subscription | Annual | Professional plan - Unlimited desktop protection |
| Subscription | Annual | Family plan - Up to 5 family members |
| Subscription | Monthly | Business plan - 5+ users |
| Subscription | Monthly | Enterprise plan - 50+ users with full services |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels5 records
Marketing channels5 records
MetaCert product offering
Product offeringCore offering
MetaCert fundamentally sells a Zero Trust URL and web-access security platform delivered through a browser extension (Cryptonite) and an enterprise-grade Security API. The browser extension displays green shields for verified-safe URLs and grey shields for unclassified sites, while the API provides intelligence on 20 billion URLs and cryptocurrency wallet addresses for hardware and software manufacturers. A URL Unfurler resolves shortened links and a MetaCert Verify service lets organizations whitelist their own domains.
Product overview
MetaCert offers a unified security platform centered on its 'Verified as Safe' security model. The core product is the MetaCert Browser Extension (Cryptonite), a Zero Trust browser security software that displays visual shields indicating URL safety status. This core offering is complemented by the MetaCert Security API for enterprise integrations, and the MetaCert URL Unfurler for detecting shortened URL destinations. The product portfolio includes four pricing tiers (Personal, Family, Business, Enterprise) scaled for individuals through large organizations, with the Enterprise tier adding dedicated support, onboarding, and customization capabilities. A Managed Service Provider (MSP) Program enables channel partners to resell MetaCert to their customers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- MetaCert Protocol: The company's core security platform that provides URL classification and verification services.
- Cryptonite
- MetaCert Verify
Products and services
- MetaCert Browser Extension (Cryptonite) Zero Trust browser software that displays a green shield for verified-safe URLs and a grey shield for unclassified sites, while blocking dangerous websites before harm can occur. Reduces risk of phishing-led cyberattacks by more than 98% and is available for Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, and Brave browsers. Targeted at individuals, families, businesses, and enterprises.
- MetaCert Security API Enterprise-grade API providing intelligence on 20 billion URLs across categories including Malware, Phishing, Crypto mining, Pornography, News Reputation, and Verified as Safe. Integrates into hardware devices or software applications in under one hour using six lines of JavaScript code, and supports digital wallet address lookup for crypto fraud prevention. Targeted at hardware manufacturers, software developers, wallets, exchanges, and companies serving crypto customers.
- MetaCert URL Unfurler URL unfurling solution that detects the real destination of shortened URLs by checking over 3,500 shortening services in less than 75 milliseconds before evaluating safety. Protects users from dangerous links hidden behind URL shorteners across browsers, email, Slack, and messaging apps.
- MetaCert Verify Service allowing business and enterprise customers to add their own whitelisted domains and sub-domains for green-shield verification. Customers can submit domains belonging to themselves, their customers, and partners to receive verified-safe classification across all associated URLs.
Quantifiable outcome
- Reduces risk of phishing-led cyberattacks by more than 98%
- +5 more outcomes
Companies that use MetaCert
Customer profileNamed customers4 records
Segments5 records
Ideal customer profiles6 records
MetaCert technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration2 records
AI capability3 records
Feature7 records
MetaCert partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- IntegralcoreTechnology partner serving over 200 top-tier financial institutions. Integral has installed MetaCert across their entire company with all staff using the green shield verification system.
- Stripe, Inc.corePCI Compliant Level 1 audited payment processor for processing credit card payments. Conforms to U.S.-E.U. Privacy Shield Framework.
- AWS and Google Cloud PlatformcoreCloud infrastructure providers. Both Amazon and Google servers run in secure data centers with broad certifications. MetaCert data held on EU servers.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
MetaCert competitors and assessment
Company assessmentBroad incumbents
- Proofpoint: Enterprise security vendor with leading email and URL threat-intelligence products targeting phishing, malware, and ransomware — directly overlapping with MetaCert's value proposition for enterprise customers, but at significantly greater scale and platform breadth.
- Cloudflare Area 1 (Email Security): Cloudflare's anti-phishing email security product (acquired from Area1 Security) addresses phishing-led URL attacks in email — the exact attack vector MetaCert targets. Cloudflare bundles this into a much broader edge-security platform, making it a broad incumbent competitor.
- Norton / Gen Digital: Consumer and SMB security suite offering browser-level phishing and malware protection. Directly overlaps with MetaCert's browser-extension model for individuals, families, and SMBs, with massive brand recognition and bundled pricing.
- McAfee: Established endpoint and web security vendor covering phishing, malware, and safe browsing across consumer and enterprise tiers. Comparable to MetaCert on browser/web threat protection, with deeper distribution but less specialization in URL classification as a core product.
- VirusTotal (Google): Google-owned multi-engine URL and file scanner used widely for threat intelligence. Overlaps with MetaCert on URL reputation lookups and serves a similar developer/security-analyst audience, but as part of Google's broader security portfolio rather than a standalone URL-classification product.
Emerging players
- Chainalysis: Blockchain analytics and compliance vendor that classifies crypto wallet addresses and transactions for fraud and AML. Partially comparable to MetaCert's crypto wallet-address classification feature, but focused on on-chain analytics rather than URL-based phishing protection for crypto users.
- SlashNext: AI-driven phishing and social-engineering threat detection across email, browser, and messaging channels. A more direct emerging competitor in phishing-led URL attack detection, with broader channel coverage than MetaCert but a less mature "verified as safe" registry positioning.
Direct peers
- Cofense: Phishing-detection and response platform focused on email-borne threats and phishing simulation. Comparable to MetaCert's anti-phishing positioning for enterprise security teams, though Cofense emphasizes human-reported phishing and incident response rather than URL classification at the browser layer.
- PhishTank: Community-driven phishing-URL clearinghouse offering a free lookup API and database. Directly comparable to MetaCert's phishing-URL classification feed, though MetaCert differentiates with a paid "verified as safe" registry and wallet-address coverage.
- URLVoid: Website reputation checker that aggregates multiple blacklists to score URL safety. Comparable to MetaCert's URL lookup API in target use case (developer/enterprise URL intelligence) but uses blacklist aggregation rather than a positive "verified as safe" model.
Market position
Strengths1 record
Weaknesses1 record
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
MetaCert social profiles
Digital presenceMetaCert compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
MetaCert financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
MetaCert leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles15 records
MetaCert funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds5 records
Investors6 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
MetaCert M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about MetaCert
What does MetaCert do?
MetaCert fundamentally sells a Zero Trust URL and web-access security platform delivered through a browser extension (Cryptonite) and an enterprise-grade Security API. The browser extension displays green shields for verified-safe URLs and grey shields for unclassified sites, while the API provides intelligence on 20 billion URLs and cryptocurrency wallet addresses for hardware and software manufacturers. A URL Unfurler resolves shortened links and a MetaCert Verify service lets organizations whitelist their own domains.
Is MetaCert a public or private company?
MetaCert is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was MetaCert founded?
MetaCert was founded in 2011. It employs 11 to 50 people.
Where is MetaCert based?
MetaCert is headquartered in San Francisco, United States, in the North America region.
How does MetaCert make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Browser Security Software Subscriptions are the primary driver. The others are security API Licensing and MSP Partner Program.
Who are MetaCert's main competitors?
Broad incumbents on record are Proofpoint, Cloudflare Area 1 (Email Security), Norton / Gen Digital, McAfee and VirusTotal (Google). Emerging players are Chainalysis and SlashNext. Direct peers are Cofense, PhishTank and URLVoid.
Does MetaCert have an API?
Yes. Enterprise Grade Security API providing intelligence on 20 billion URLs covering categories including Malware, Phishing, Crypto mining, Pornography, News Reputation, and Verified as Safe. The API enables lookup of digital wallet addresses (fraudulent or verified as safe) designed for wallets, exchanges, and companies protecting customers from crypto fraud. With just six lines of code, it takes less than an hour for a developer to integrate inside any hardware device or software application. Developer documentation is at developer.metacert.com.
What industry is MetaCert in?
MetaCert's product category is Cybersecurity Software. Its primary akta.pro industry code is HDADAEAK, Browser & Web Isolation Security.