Voice security and authentication specialist, Pindrop, has closed $90 million in Series D funding to fuel global expansion.
The funding was led by Vitruvian Partners. Other new strategic investors include Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs. Existing investors CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Citi Ventures also invested.
Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Co-Founder, CEO and CTO of Pindrop said the investment enables the company to quickly boost its advancements in consumer IoT and voice technology while continuing its market presence for anti-fraud and authentication solutions.
The company has seen significant growth and traction, including 8 of the 10 largest banks and 5 of the 7 largest insurance companies in the U.S. becoming Pindrop customers. It currently protects over 200 million consumer accounts and has stopped over $350 million in voice-based fraud and attacks in 2018 to date.
The fact that this latest investment round was led by London headquartered Vitruvian Partners, signals Pindrop’s intentions to establish stronger regional presences in the UK and European markets.
“One of our key goals is to help leading high-growth companies like Pindrop grow in Europe and internationally,” said David Nahama, Senior Partner at Vitruvian Partners. “We are confident that Pindrop is poised for massive expansion given the company’s depth of engineering expertise, pioneering efforts in machine learning technology and patent portfolio.”
EDBI and Dimension Data also joined the round to drive Pindrop’s progress in Asian markets.
The new infusion of capital will also serve to advance Pindrop’s evolution towards providing security and identity solutions for voice-assisted smart devices ranging from Google Home to smart locks to connected cars. Pindrop’s deep roots in securing the call center enables the company to apply its advanced deep learning technology to make voice a trusted form of biometric authentication for voice-enabled devices.
Pindrop will be working with Allegion Ventures, a corporate venture fund of global security products and solutions provider Allegion plc, a strategic investor in the company’s latest financing. Allegion Ventures believes Pindrop’s proprietary technology can bridge a gap between physical and digital security.
“Voice-enabled interfaces are expanding how consumers interact with IoT devices in their everyday lives – as well as IoT manufacturers’ ability to offer smarter and stronger solutions,” said Allegion Ventures President Rob Martens.
Pindrop and Verizon Enterprise Solutions announced a new integrated solution offering authentication and anti-fraud protection for enterprise call centers on its network last month. The Verizon VoIP Inbound Anti-Fraud and Authentication service integrates voice and multi-factor authentications, enabling businesses to verify the identity of inbound callers while simplifying the consumer self-service experience.
Earlier this year, Pindrop published its annual intelligence report detailing developments in fraud, the future of voice and the impact to customer service across various industries. In the report, Pindrop revealed the rate of voice fraud climbed over 350 percent from 2013 through 2017, with no signs of slowing down. Additionally, between 2016 and 2017, overall voice channel fraud increased by 47 percent, or one in every 638 calls. The year-over-year increase can be attributed to several causes, including the development of new voice technology, the steady uptick in significant data breaches, and acts of fraud across multiple channels.
