Who Owns NordVPN?
🔍 Quick answer:
NordVPN is owned by Nord Security (formerly Tefincom S.A.), a private cybersecurity company co-founded in 2012 by Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas. The company is headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania, but NordVPN operates under Panama jurisdiction, which has no mandatory data-retention laws.
Company structure at a glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Nord Security (formerly Tefincom S.A.) |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founders | Tom Okman, Eimantas Sabaliauskas |
| Headquarters | Vilnius, Lithuania |
| NordVPN legal entity | Tefincom S.A. (Panama) |
| Funding | Private (valued at $3B+ after 2022 round) |
| Employees | ~1,700 (2024) |
Who founded NordVPN?
NordVPN was launched in 2012 by Tom Okman and Eimantas Sabaliauskas, two childhood friends from Lithuania. Both remain in senior leadership at Nord Security today — Tom Okman as co-CEO, Eimantas Sabaliauskas as the other co-CEO.
Originally, the project was small — a single VPN app for friends and family. It grew into the world's largest VPN brand by 2022.
Why is NordVPN based in Panama?
The choice of Panama for the legal entity is deliberate:
- No mandatory data retention: Panama has no laws requiring VPNs to log user activity.
- Outside 14-Eyes alliance: Not part of the intelligence-sharing agreement between US, UK, Canada, Australia, NZ, and others.
- Independent of EU/US jurisdiction: Authorities can't force NordVPN to hand over data under US/EU subpoenas.
Other products owned by Nord Security
Nord Security is more than just NordVPN. Their portfolio includes:
- NordVPN — consumer VPN (flagship product)
- NordLayer — business VPN for teams and enterprises
- NordPass — password manager
- NordLocker — encrypted cloud storage
- NordWL — white-label VPN for resellers
Has NordVPN had any controversies?
A few notable events worth knowing:
- 2018 server breach: A single Finland server was compromised. No user data was exposed (no logs kept), but NordVPN didn't disclose it for 18 months, which hurt trust.
- 2022 funding round: Nord Security raised $100M at a $3B+ valuation, becoming Lithuania's first tech unicorn.
- 2023 merger talks with Surfshark: Reportedly explored merging, but the deal was abandoned in 2024 — both brands remain independent.
💡 Pro tip: If you care about corporate transparency, look at the audit history. NordVPN has been independently audited by Deloitte (2022, 2023, 2024) — its no-logs policy has been verified three times.
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Terms you'll meet
- IP address
- Your device's public ID online.
- Encryption
- Scrambling data so only you can read it.
- No‑logs policy
- VPN doesn't store your activity.