Hawcx nets $3M for passwordless tech that aims to topple passkeys

Los Angeles-based passwordless authentication startup Hawcx has secured $3 million in pre-seed funding, according to a release. Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Engineering Capital led the round, with participation from seed-stage fund Boldcap.

“Having witnessed firsthand the high administrative overhead and costs of authentication for both consumers and employees at large organizations, we understand the pressing need for change,” says Riya Shanmugam, co-founder and CEO of Hawcx. “While the passwordless authentication market has largely focused on passkeys, which address security concerns, the true challenge lies in usability.”

While it agrees with the FIDO Alliance that “passwords will soon be a thing of the past,” Shanmugam says “the user experience with passkeys falls short of what’s needed for widespread adoption.”

As such, Hawcx aims to offer an alternative. While hard details are scant on the firm’s website, it does specify that its product allows developers to add passwordless logins to web and mobile applications with five lines of code regardless of device and OS type, that it requires no passwords, magic links or OTPs, and that it is “powered by Zero Knowledge Authentication (ZKA) technology, a cryptographic technique designed for breach-free authentications.”

An interview with Shanmugam in TechCrunch goes a bit deeper, noting that “Hawcx said its solution doesn’t rely on transmitting or storing private keys from devices, like passkeys. Instead, Shanmugam told TechCrunch that Hawcx cryptographically generates private keys every time the user signs in.”

Because the generated private keys are not stored on users’ devices, Hawcx says its technology “works on older devices that don’t have the modern chips to support the typical passkey setup.”

Shanmugam specifies that Hawcx is not “building on top of what passkeys as a protocol provides. We are saying this protocol comes with an insane amount of limitations for users, enterprises, and developers, and we can make it better.”

The fresh funding will help Hawcx, which emerged from stealth mode in April 2024, accelerate product development, grow its team and scale sales and marketing initiatives. The firm’s profile on Crunchbase predicts “it is very likely that Hawcx will raise another funding round.” Meanwhile, it is reportedly in discussions with large banks and gaming companies to start pilots in the next few weeks.

Article Topics

consumer adoption  |  Hawcx  |  investment  |  passkeys  |  passwordless authentication  |  user experience  |  zero knowledge