Secure enterprise browsers continue to gain traction as more vendors add them to their portfolios, with the latest coming from Akamai Technologies, which last week agreed to acquire LayerX for $205 million.
LayerX, a Tel Aviv-based startup founded in 2021, offers a lightweight browser extension that turns Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and other major Web browsers into a policy‑enforced, secure workspace, rather than requiring users to switch to a separate enterprise browser. While Akamai will continue to provide the LayerX browser as a standalone product, the company also plans to integrate the browser into its Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) portfolio, which includes Guardicore Segmentation, Secure Internet Access Enterprise, Enterprise Application Access, and a multifactor authentication (MFA) access offering. Integration with ZTNA is important because Akamai’s platform controls application access but not what happens in the browser once authenticated, says Mani Sundaram, executive VP and general manager of Akamai’s Security Technology Group.
LayerX is designed to observe each click, prompt, and action in the browser across software-as-a-service (SaaS) and artificial intelligence (AI) tools and enforce policy before traffic is encrypted and transmitted — effectively extending Akamai ZTNA’s access decisions into the browser session once access is granted.
“LayerX, by itself, has a great product that we intend to take to our customers just as it is right now,” Sundaram tells Dark Reading, but in the long term, the plan is to extend the combined ZTNA+LayerX model across the broader set of Akamai offerings, including API security, AI/LLM protection, its content delivery network (CDN), and Akamai Cloud.
Secure Enterprise Browsers as Hot Acquisition Targets
The Akamai deal, set to close next quarter, is the latest in a crowded market of companies that have introduced or acquired secure enterprise browsers in recent months. Earlier this year, Zscaler acquired early-stage startup SquareX and CrowdStrike acquired Seraphic Security.
Palo Alto Networks was one of the first large cybersecurity companies to enter the secure enterprise browser market when it acquired Talon in 2023. Palo Alto Networks upgraded its Prisma browser with new agentic AI capabilities last March.
“There has been quite a bit of M&A activity in both these areas as major vendors, particularly ones that offer [secure access server edge] SASE functionality for securing SaaS app usage, such as Akamai, have recognized the need for something on the endpoint, as well as in the cloud for this purpose,” says Rik Turner, chief analyst in Omdia’s security research group.
In addition to M&A activity, there have also been organic developments. Earlier this week, Versa Networks released a Secure Enterprise Browser designed to extend its SASE policies directly into the browser workspace. Versa developed a new Model Context Protocol‑based zero-trust layer in its Versa Verbo AI‑based co‑pilot, which runs on the VersaONE platform. The new capability is designed to validate every agent‑generated action against identity, roles, and policies before execution.
As more work has shifted to SaaS-based applications, the browser has become the primary computing interface, in turn driving increased traction for secure enterprise browsers. According to Gartner, 10% of the organizations surveyed by the research firm were using secure enterprise browers, a trend forecast to reach 25% by 2028.
Adding Control Points to the Browser Is Key
While LayerX is a browser extension that adds security policies to major Web browsers, Palo Alto Networks Prisma Browser and Netskope One Enterprise Browser are distinct, standalone Chromium‑based browsers.
“LayerX was one of the early, full-featured browser security extensions,” says Forrester Research senior analyst Paddy Harrington. “They’ve done a lot of work with the product, when it comes to controlling data and access to AI through the browser. For an add-on, they do a good job of monitoring and managing things.”
Akamai’s Sundaram says he has been following the secure browser market for some time.
“What became an inflection point for us was the fact that AI adoption has moved across our customer base, and it became very clear that the adoption of AI, a different set of capabilities and tools was required, and the secure browser was the right one,” Sundaram says.
Sundaram believes the LayerX secure browser will give Akamai a significant control point for identifying how employees interact with AI.
“Traditional control points in the SASE/SSE environment are typically at a proxy level, potentially far from where employees are, which results in performance issues,” he says. “[We realized that] the right control point for us was in the browser, before encrypting all the data.”
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