Biometric authentication platform Transmit Security raises $543M

Identity and access management startup Transmit Security has raised $543 million in what ought to be amongst the biggest series A rounds of funding ever, providing the Israeli business a valuation of $2.3 billion.

The raise comes amid a hotbed of activity across the digital identity verification and management space, with Okta not too long ago finishing its $6.5 billion Auth0 acquisition and Mastercard doling out $850 million for Ekata. Data suggests that corporations will devote about $9.4 billion on digital identity verification technologies alone in 2021, a figure that is set to develop to $16.7 billion inside 5 years.

Kill the password

Transmit Security is setting out to resolve the age-old “password problem” — about 80% of information breaches are reportedly due to compromised passwords, costing the international economy $2.9 million in cybercrime expenses every single minute. To enable combat this, Transmit Security not too long ago launched BindID, which is pitched as an “app-less mobile authenticator” that web site or app creators can integrate to authenticate shoppers by means of their on-device biometrics such as face or fingerprint scanning — enabled by a very simple QR code.

Elsewhere, Transmit Security also provides passwordless authentication for workforces known as WorkID and an identity policy orchestration toolset known as FlexID.

In an increasingly distributed workforce, technologies such as that supplied by Transmit Security allow providers to onboard new workers more securely and authenticate future logins regardless of exactly where the employee resides. And corporations such as banks can confirm shoppers in an business that continues to move away from in-individual interactions to on the internet, though countering the ongoing threat posed by identity theft and fraud.

Frictionless

There is more to the passwordless movement than merely generating issues more safe. Customers could abandon their purchasing cart at the checkout if they cannot readily recall their password, though IT teams can waste a lot of sources assisting a workforce of thousands access their on the internet accounts when they get locked out. The ultimate aim is to take away friction.

“Every time I see a login button on a website, I get anxious,” Transmit Security president and cofounder Rakesh Loonkar stated in a press release. “Whenever an app texts me a code that I have to enter, I become frustrated with the process. We’ve all learned to suffer and accept the terrible user experience and poor security that comes with passwords just because that’s the way it has always worked in the past.”

Founded in 2015, Transmit Security has been totally bootstrapped by means of its six-year history, following the founders sold their prior safety business to IBM for a reported $1 billion in 2013. In the intervening years, Transmit Security — which now has offices in Tel Aviv and Boston — has amassed a pretty impressive roster of shoppers, like HSBC, UBS, Santander, and Lowe’s.

The company’s gargantuan money injection was co-led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with participation from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz