Pindrop raises $90M to support voice biometrics expansion into Europe and vertical markets

Pindrop has closed a $90 million Series D funding round led by Vitruvian Partners, and plans to establish stronger regional presences in the UK and Europe, according to a company announcement.

Other participants in the new funding round include Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Godman Sachs, along with existing investors CapitalG, IVP, Andreeson Horowitz, GV (formerly known as Google Ventures), and Citi Ventures.

“Our broad range of investors collectively view Pindrop as the established industry leader for securing the future of voice as it moves beyond the voice channel and towards voice-enabled devices,” says Pindrop Co-founder, CEO and CTO Vijay Balasubramaniyan. “This investment enables us to quickly boost our advancements in consumer IoT and voice technology while also continuing to strengthen our market leading solutions for anti-fraud and authentication solutions for the global enterprise.”

The company plans to leverage its voice biometric security technology to expand its market penetration, build additional products and develop partnerships with global channels, telecommunications companies, and consumer IoT organizations, according to the announcement. Pindrop currently counts 8 of the 10 largest banks and 5 of the 7 largest insurance companies in the U.S. among its customers, and was recently integrated into Verizon’s call center service. It has reported CAGR of 137 percent in revenue in the past three years, expects its bookings in the EMEA region to triple in the coming year, and says it has stopped more than $350 million in voice-based fraud and attacks in 2018.

The company also recently added Burney Barker as Chief Revenue Officer and Jeff Hodges as Chief Financial Officer amid its rapid growth.

“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.”

Pindrop will allocate some of its new capital to the development of security and identity solutions for voice-enabled smart devices, and will leverage the IoT security position of security solutions provider Allegion plc, of which Allegion Ventures is the corporate venture arm. Smart home devices, smart locks, and connected cars could all be secured with biometric authentication by Pindrop.

A survey released earlier this year by Pindrop indicates that enterprise use of voice biometrics is about to explode.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  investment  |  Pindrop  |  voice biometrics