Sidekick builds a productivity-focused web browser designed to reduce distractions by stripping ads, muting notifications and redirecting attention away from non-work sites. The Chromium-based browser places a panel of web apps (Slack, Gmail, Zoom, etc.) in a left-hand sidebar to keep workflows in a single focused interface. It includes a distraction blocker that mutes notifications and hides unread counts, and users can add sites to a personal distraction list. Founded in 2021 by Dmitry Pushkarev, Sidekick positions the product for users who struggle with focus, including those with ADHD. The company offers a free tier, a Pro plan at $8 per month (billed annually) with unlocked features and multiple-account support, and a ProTeam plan for companies that includes pre-installed apps and a built-in VPN. The company reports more than 100,000 users, with about a fifth on the ProTeam plan. Sidekick says it will use the recent funding to further drive growth of the browser across its product tiers. Sidekick builds a productivity-focused layer on Chromium it calls a “work OS,” letting users pin web apps in a sidebar, support multiple logins, and search across apps, tabs and workspaces. Key features include Sessions to save groups of tabs, AI-based tab suspension to reduce RAM usage, a built-in password manager, embedded video chat, ad blocking and anti-fingerprinting, and support for Chrome extensions. The product targets knowledge workers and teams and is being used by teams at Microsoft, Dropbox, Slack and Lyft; the startup reports around 30,000 users a few months after its November 2020 launch. The business model is SaaS; the company is building B2B features (currently in beta) and says the majority of its revenue presently comes from B2B, while planning to launch a B2C subscription in March. Founder Dmitry Pushkarev — previously founder of Moleculo and ClusterK, both acquired — conceived Sidekick while an EIR at Kleiner Perkins. The team says it is mostly focused on product metrics such as activation, retention and virality as it develops additional business-friendly features and a New Tab Page due to roll out to all users by month-end.

Total raised

$6M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Sep 2023