Typing biometrics gets a boost as Gradient Ventures leads $7M funding round for TypingDNA

TypingDNA has announced a $7 million Series A funding round led by Google’s AI-focused venture fund Gradient Ventures. Prior investors, including EU-based fund GapMinder, Credo, and Techstars Ventures, also participated in the round. This new investment is expected to be used to expand the company’s developer support network and offer more tools to integrate its API with existing website development platforms.

The behavioral biometrics company was founded in 2016 in Romania by Raul Popa, Cristian Tamas, and Adrian Gheara. The company’s proprietary AI algorithms authenticate users based on how they type on desktop keyboards and mobile devices.

“Advancing the research and distribution of typing biometrics is of global importance,” says Raul Popa, CEO of TypingDNA. “Keyboards are incorporated in almost any device today, making typing behavior the most widely available user biometric. This round of funding will allow us to further our mission to provide user-friendly, non-intrusive biometrics and increased security to people around the world.”

“We’re excited about TypingDNA’s developer-first approach to enable people to authenticate securely based on how they type,” adds Darian Shirazi, General Partner at Gradient Ventures. “With global regulation impacting face-recognition-based authentication and hackers targeting SMS-based two-factor authentication, typing biometrics is the best form of identifying people without compromising privacy or security.”

TypingDNA’s Authentication API accepts user keystrokes in a standardized and open-sourced format for integration into any desktop or mobile application. The API can be implemented as a passive two-factor authentication option, password recovery method, or to ensure inputs are matched to a given user. TypingDNA’s mobile developer SDK supports the latest version of iOS and Android applications.

The company’s behavioral biometrics technology has been applied in many industries including banking, financial services, insurance, and identity verification for online learning organizations. Last year the European Banking Authority (EBA) approved keystroke dynamics as a compliant method of authentication under PSD2’s SCA requirements.

Article Topics

behavioral biometrics  |  biometrics  |  funding  |  investment  |  TypingDNA