Dipo Olowookere
Leading voice security and authentication company, Pindrop, has closed a $90 million in Series D funding package led by Vitruvian Partners, which would be used to propel its global expansion ambition.
Apart from Vitruvian Partners, others involved in the fundraising are Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs.
They will join existing investors like CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Citi Ventures to take the firm to the next level.
“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,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Co-Founder, CEO and CTO of Pindrop. “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.”
Pindrop is leading the way towards a future of secure, trusted, and convenient voice interactions. In doing so, the company has built the leading technology in voice biometrics security. Through expanding market penetration, Pindrop will build additional products and continue to develop partnerships with global channels, telecommunications leaders, and consumer IoT organizations.
Pindrop’s latest investment round — led by London headquartered Vitruvian Partners, one of the largest growth capital investment funds in Europe — signals the company’s intentions to establish stronger regional presences in the UK and European markets.
“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.”
EDBI, a global technology investor, also joined the round to drive Pindrop’s progress in Asian markets. With EDBI’s APJ network, Pindrop is now able to expand its go to market capabilities globally and serve a worldwide customer base.
Dimension Data, a major global technology integrator and managed services subsidiary of Japan’s NTT Group, is an investor in this round and will partner with Pindrop to leverage their world-wide systems integrator and value added reseller network. Through Dimension Data’s vast expertise delivering integrated solutions to a global customer base, this partnership will significantly accelerate and scale Pindrop’s go to market strategy across the global enterprise.
The new infusion of capital will also serve to advance Pindrop’s evolution towards providing security and identity solutions for voice-assisted smart devices ranging from Google Home to smart locks to connected cars. Pindrop’s deep roots in securing the call center enables the company to apply its advanced deep learning technology to make voice a trusted form of biometric authentication for voice-enabled devices.
Pindrop will be working with Allegion Ventures, a corporate venture fund of global security products and solutions provider Allegion plc, a strategic investor in the company’s latest financing. Allegion Ventures believes Pindrop’s proprietary technology can bridge a gap between physical and digital security.
“Voice-enabled interfaces are expanding how consumers interact with IoT devices in their everyday lives – as well as IoT manufacturers’ ability to offer smarter and stronger solutions,” said Allegion Ventures President Rob Martens. “We’re excited about the future of voice technology and see Pindrop as a pioneer in the space. We look forward to working with Vijay and his team to accelerate the adoption of voice technology into new markets.” Pindrop and Verizon Enterprise Solutions announced a new integrated solution offering authentication and anti-fraud protection for enterprise call centers on its network just last month. The Verizon VoIP Inbound Anti-Fraud and Authentication service is the first solution on the market to integrate voice and multi-factor authentications, enabling businesses to quickly and cost effectively verify the identity of inbound callers while simplifying the consumer self-service experience.
