Phone-based fraud prevention company Pindrop closed a Series D funding round today valued at $90 million, bringing the Atlanta-based company’s total funding to almost $213 million. Pindrop is not disclosing its valuation, but did say that it is “much higher” than the $600 million it was valued at after its $75 million funding round in 2016.
Vitruvian Partners led the round. Strategic investors Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs also participated, along with existing investors, including CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV and Citi Ventures.
According to Vijay Balasubramaniyan, co-founder, CEO, and CTO of Pindrop, the company will use the investment to advance in consumer IoT and voice technology while strengthening its existing solutions. Specifically, the company outlined plans to boost its presence in Europe and Asia, citing investments from U.K.-based Vitruvian Partners, Singapore-based EDBI, and Japan-based Dimension Data.
“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 also use the funds to support research and development efforts into providing security solutions for voice-controlled smart devices, including Google Home, smart locks, and connected cars. “Voice is fast emerging as the next generation human user interface with wide consumer and commercial applications, yet security remains a major concern,” said Chu Swee Yeok, chief executive and president of EDBI. “Pindrop’s world class AI voice security technology will be a significant enabler for wider voice UI adoption, beyond call centers.”
Founded in 2011, Pindrop debuted its Phoneprinting technology at FinovateFall 2012 in New York. The technology detects 80% of fraudulent calls into call centers and protects “hundreds of millions” of calls annually. Pindrop is working with eight of 10 of the largest banks as well as the five of the seven largest insurance companies in the U.S. Overall, the company protects more than 200 million consumer accounts and has stopped more than $350 million in voice-based fraud attacks this year.