Mullvad faces backlash over co-founder’s $519,000 party donation

Mullvad is facing customer backlash after co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Berntsson personally donated SEK 5 million, about £385,000 or $519,000, to Örebropartiet, a Swedish populist party that is set to contest Sweden’s 2026 national election. For a VPN business, where customer trust is tied closely to who controls the company, the dispute has become a reputational issue, though Mullvad has not disclosed churn, revenue impact or any governance changes.

The donation was first reported by Swedish socialist newspaper Flamman, which described Berntsson as a high-profile technology figure and said the contribution was the largest single private donation to a Swedish political party in 2025. According to Flamman, the donation accounted for 72% of Örebropartiet’s income for the year. DonationWatch, which tracks Swedish political funding, lists the contribution separately in its data.

Mullvad, based in Sweden, was co-founded by Berntsson and Fredrik Strömberg, who remain joint owners and co-CEOs. The company is best known for its VPN service and also offers Mullvad Browser, a privacy-focused fork of Firefox ESR developed with the Tor Project. Its name means “mole” in Swedish, reflected in the company’s branding.

Örebropartiet began as a local party and later expanded across Örebro County. It is now running nationally for the first time. Its platform combines some left-leaning economic proposals, including free preschool, public transport and dental care, lower pay for politicians and a 30-hour work week, with hard-right positions on migration. The party supports sharply lower immigration and what it calls “large-scale remigration,” policies aimed at encouraging or forcing immigrants to leave Sweden.

The response from parts of Mullvad’s user base has been visible across blogs and forums. Finnish blog Moonwriting published a post titled “I’m done with Mullvad.” Another blog, Unutterable, framed the issue as “Mullvad funding the far-right and the problem with tech company ownership.” A Hacker News discussion about the donation had reached 1,784 comments.

Berntsson has responded with a series of posts, including one explaining the donation and others titled “Immigration,” “Political individualism” and “Moral individualism.” Before that burst of writing, he had not posted since 2019.

Mullvad has tried to separate the personal donation from the company’s position. In a post on X, the company said it was committed to freedom of speech and tolerance, adding: “It should be obvious that Daniel's private donation to a political party is not part of Mullvad's values or mission, in the same way that someone's opinions on animal rights, taxes or public healthcare policy isn't.”

The company’s statement does not address whether ownership rights, board control or operating decisions could be affected by the controversy. The Register said it had approached Mullvad for comment.

This story draws on original reporting from The Register.