Notion recently acquired Skiff, a privacy-focused platform offering end-to-end encrypted email, documents, file storage, and calendar services. Founded in 2020 by Andrew Milich and Jason Ginsberg, Skiff positioned itself as a secure alternative to Google Docs and traditional email providers. The company raised $14.2 million over two funding rounds, attracting investors such as Sequoia Capital, Alphabet chairman John Hennessy, former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang, Eventbrite co-founders Julia and Kevin Hartz, Balaji Srinivasan, and re–Inc founder Jenny Wang.
With this acquisition, Notion aims to expand its productivity suite by integrating privacy-centric features that align with growing user demand for secure digital collaboration tools.
As of November 2023, Skiff had nearly 2 million users actively relying on its services. Originally, Skiff planned to shut down its platform within six months of the acquisition in early 2024, but following user feedback, the sunset period was extended to 12 months to ease migration pains.
However, Skiff users will not have their accounts automatically migrated to Notion. Instead, they must manually export their data. To assist users during this transition, Skiff provides an official migration guide covering email, contacts, calendar events, and file exports.
For businesses and mailing list owners, this change signals a potential increase in bounce rates from Skiff’s @skiff.com email addresses as users migrate to alternative services. This is a timely reminder to review and clean your contact lists to maintain deliverability. Additionally, respecting the privacy preferences of Skiff’s user base is crucial, as many are likely to move toward other encrypted email providers.
Skiff users might want to consider alternatives like Proton Mail or Tutanota.
The acquisition, which took place in February 2024, marks a significant moment in the evolution of privacy-focused digital tools, with Notion betting on secure collaboration as a core differentiator.
Learn more about the fallout from this decision on x.
