Nok Nok Labs launches, raises $15 million in early financing

Nok Nok Labs launched today to provide organizations with the ability to defend themselves and their users against increasingly sophisticated online threats, using the company’s Unified Authentication Infrastructure, which includes leveraging existing technologies including biometrics.

Nok Nok’s Unified Authentication Infrastructure uses technologies such as fingerprint sensors or webcams, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) chips, or voice biometrics. According to the company, online authentication continues to present a challenge for enterprises, technology providers and users and Nok Nok’s solutions enables easy-to-use strong authentication that minimizes or eliminates the reliance on user names and passwords.

Nok Nok Labs was incubated by Founder and Chief Alliance Officer, Ramesh Kesanupalli, who worked together with PayPal Chief Information Security Officer Michael Barrett and the “father of SSL,” Taher Elgamal.

“Nok Nok Labs wasn’t created to build just a point product, but deliver innovative solutions in four critical areas that go against conventional wisdom in the security market: (i) more secure yet easier to use, (ii) scalable to solve enterprise needs and problems, (iii) able to unify existing technologies, and not another divisive point product, and (iv) cost efficient by building on and enabling legacy technologies,” Phillip Dunkelberger, CEO of Nok Nok Labs said. “Nok Nok Labs will provide enterprises, technology providers and their users with an alternative capability to provide simple, secure authentication, and is inclusive of previous technologies. We’ve put together a world class management team with decades of experience in building standards and solving tough Internet-related problems that will transform the way users interact online.”

According to a report from Reuters, Nok Nok Labs raised $15 million in early financing from ONSET Ventures and Doll Capital Management.

In response to the current lack of open standards in authentication, Nok Nok Labs has joined forces with other industry leaders such as PayPal, Lenovo, Validity, Agnitio and Infineon to establish the FIDO Alliance, a non-profit corporation organized to address market needs and requirements. This new open standard for strong authentication (“FIDO”) will allow any website or cloud application to interface with a broad variety of existing and future FIDO-enabled devices and technologies that the user has available for online security.

“By creating an authentication infrastructure that leverages existing technologies such as fingerprint scanning and webcams, Nok Nok Labs is giving businesses the opportunity to authenticate anyone, anywhere and on any device,” said Michael Barrett, Chief Information Security Officer at PayPal. “Given the billions of connected Internet devices and future growth of online commerce, PayPal sees a critical need to implement strong yet flexible authentication solutions.”

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  fingerprint  |  identification  |  identity management