[May 01, 2012]

Pindrop Security Closes Seed Round from Andreessen Horowitz, Sigma Partners, Webb Investment Network and Others

Pindrop Security, a leading innovator in combating phone-based fraud, today announced the company has closed a $1 million seed round which includes investments by Andreessen Horowitz, GRA Venture Fund, New World Ventures, Sigma Partners, and Webb Investment Network led by former eBay COO Maynard Webb. Prominent angel investors Paul Bricault, Kevin Donahue, and Ben Ling have also joined the round. The company will use the funds to scale customer acquisition and expand product development.

Caller ID is easily spoofed and this weakness allows cybercriminals to steal billions of dollars annually from individuals, banks and other enterprises. According to the FTC (News - Alert), 29 percent of fraud victims are first contacted by phone. According to Gartner, "in most banks, the phone channel remains seriously exposed." In fact, Pindrop Security observed the volume of attacks increase by 52 percent in the second half of 2011.

To counter this trend, Pindrop Security provides enterprise and carrier solutions that detect and block phone-based fraud. Its acoustical fingerprinting technology detects fraudulent calls and authenticates legitimate callers, helping customers eliminate financial losses and reduce operational costs. Pindrop Security's breakthrough technology is the only solution that can verify the geographic origi of a call and the phone type based on audio analysis.

"Phone (News - Alert) fraud is a global problem that is harming individuals and call centers around the world," said Dr. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop Security's co-founder and CEO. "We are excited to have these investors back us as we lead the fight against phone fraud."

Pindrop Security has developed and begun deploying the following products to customers:

• Phone Reputation Service - a threat intelligence service that includes the largest, most detailed database of fraudulent callers in the world as well as analysis and predictive tools to track phone number reputation
• Fraud Detection System - technology that analyzes phone calls to identify fraud by determining the true geographic origin and phone type

Pindrop Security's patent-pending algorithms are based on research developed at the Georgia Tech Information Security Center. Pindrop has also received grants from the National Science Foundation SBIR program, GRA's VentureLab and funding from the Technology Association of Georgia. Additional Atlanta investors participating in the round include Flashpoint, Mark Buffington of Buckhead Investment Partners, and Tal Cohen, founder of Clickfox.

Pindrop Security's cofounders include Dr. Paul Judge and Georgia Tech professors Dr. Mustaque Ahamad and Dr. Patrick Traynor. Paul Judge serves as executive chairman and was previously CTO of CipherTrust which was acquired by Secure Computing, CTO of Secure Computing which was acquired by McAfee, and founder and CTO of Purewire which was acquired by Barracuda Networks (News - Alert).

Pindrop Security was named one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies at the 2012 RSA Conference and a Gartner "Cool Vendor" in Enterprise Unified Communications (News - Alert) and Network Services for 2012. Pindrop Security was selected to present at Finovate Spring 2012 conference on May 7 & 8.

About Pindrop Security

Pindrop Security provides enterprise solutions that help prevent phone-based fraud. Its acoustical fingerprinting technology detects fraudulent calls and authenticates legitimate callers, helping customers eliminate financial losses and reduce operational costs. Pindrop's breakthrough technology is the first of its kind to fingerprint individual phone calls, providing verification of caller provenance. Recently named one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies at the 2012 RSA (News - Alert) conference and a Gartner "Cool Vendor" in Enterprise Unified Communications and Network Services for 2012, Pindrop's solutions help companies feel more confident in the security of phone-based financial transactions. www.pindropsecurity.com

[ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]