Pindrop Security, a pioneer in voice-fraud prevention and authentication, said it raised a $75 million Series C funding round led by Google Capital with participation from GV, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Citi Ventures, and Felicis Ventures.
To date, the company, a 2014 Signature graduate of the Advanced Technology Development Center (ATDC) at Georgia Tech, has raised more than $122 million. Pindrop currently protects the phone calls of three of the four largest banks in the United States as well as many top insurance companies, government agencies, and retailers.
The company was launched in 2010 by Vijay Balasubramaniyan, while he was pursuing his doctoral degree at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing. The then-fledgling company started out in VentureLab, the incubator at Georgia Tech that works with startups founded by Tech students, faculty, and staff. The company received support early on from the the Georgia Research Alliance to get the idea to a viable concept stage. VentureLab also partnered with Flashpoint, a Georgia Tech startup accelerator that works with founders to get them to think strategically about their business.
After meeting key milestones, the company continued to grow with guidance from ATDC as a Signature company before graduating out of the program.
As physical security and cybersecurity receive more attention, attackers are moving to using the telephone to commit their crimes. The result is a phone fraud, identity theft, and social engineering epidemic that exceeds $20 billion annually in the United States alone. In 2015, social engineering over the phone was responsible for the account takeover and monetization activity for both data breaches and mobile payments.
“Voice fraud is a large, expensive and unsolved problem for many enterprises, and Pindrop is taking a truly unique approach, helping its customers save millions of dollars by preventing voice fraud,” said Gene Frantz, partner at Google Capital. “As voice commands become the standard across intelligent assistants, cars, and the Internet of Things, Pindrop is creating the leading authentication and security solution for this exploding market. We are excited to be an investor based on the company’s momentum, unique technology and large market opportunity.”
Additionally, voice has become the de facto interface for the Internet of Things and intelligent assistants. Voice-enabled devices are creating new opportunities for identity theft and fraud. Pindrop’s patented phoneprinting technology is addressing that gap by providing a solution that analyzes voice interactions to authenticate customers and detect identity theft leading to fraud.
“Working closely with Google Capital gives us amazing access to their expertise in phone and voice related technologies,” said Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop CEO and co-founder. “Voice is the future and today’s investment will help accelerate our global expansion and allow us to invest more dollars into research and development as we continue building the definitive platform that enables security, trust and identity in the voice world.”