Brave Browser & Search Engine expands into France and Germany with key hires

After establishing itself in the UK, US and Canada, the independent browser and search engine moves to boost European presence

Brave Browser & Search Engine, the independent, privacy-first browser and search engine, has announced its expansion into continental Europe, appointing Zouher Yahia and Thomas Bindl as Senior Ad Sales Directors for France and Germany respectively. The European expansion comes after two years in which Brave has successfully established its brand and business in the UK.

Brave Search is the third-largest global independent search engine, with an index of over 40 billion webpages and a monthly volume of more than 2 billion queries. It is the default search engine for most new users of the Brave browser, which has more than 117 million users. It does not collect personal data or build user profiles, and by default it also blocks invasive ads and trackers, third-party data storage and browser fingerprinting.

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During 2025, against a backdrop of modest increases in search spend – up 5.8% year-on-year according to the most recent AA/WARC Advertising Expenditure Report – search queries via the Brave browser grew by 55%, while advertising revenues grew by 400%.

Unlike most browsers that typically serve numerous ads per search query, creating a cluttered, low-performance environment for advertisers, Brave serves only one ad per query, giving brands the opportunity to own their vertical. This has attracted the leading online search advertisers, including Amazon, Booking.com, eBay, Etsy, Nerdwallet, Priceline, StubHub, T-Mobile, TurboTax and Wayfair. The non-intrusive ad experience has also led to a user opt-out rate of less than 1%.

“Zouher and Thomas are the perfect hires to lead our expansion into France and Germany,” said Rich Rosenzweig, VP Global at Brave Ads, Brave’s advertising division. “What we’ve seen from our experience in the UK, US and Canada is that people are fed up of being tracked, fingerprinted and spammed with irrelevant advertising everywhere they turn on the internet. We are bucking the trend in search, as the growth in our revenues and search query numbers in 2025 shows. I think the people of France and Germany who want a safer, more private and more relevant browsing experience will welcome the launch of Brave in their countries.”

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Brave is helping brands and agencies navigate the future of digital advertising in a privacy-first world. It is redefining how advertisers connect with audiences through a browser and search engine built on transparency, user control, and performance.

The Brave browser is used by over 117 million people worldwide. It blocks third-party ads and trackers by default for fast, private browsing. It also offers a wealth of helpful features including a VPN and an AI browsing assistant. Brave is one of just three web search indexes at scale in the West, and it’s the only one commercially available in a reliable, independent Search API. It provides users with accurate, AI-enhanced answers without profiling them. Brave Search is available as the default search engine in Brave, or via any other browser at search.brave.com.

Brave is also reinventing digital advertising, with solus sponsored search result placements and the New Tab Takeover – a high-impact ad unit that offers a near-full-screen takeover of the new tab page on the Brave browser. Ads are served on the first new tab upon starting the browser, and on every third new tab thereafter. With these placements, advertisers get access to engaged, otherwise unreachable audiences.