Pindrop Security Raises $11M From Andreessen Horowitz And Citi Ventures To Solve Bank Phone Fraud And Enterprise Call Center Security

ATLANTA, June 19, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Pindrop Security, the pioneer in phone fraud prevention and call center authentication for banks and enterprise call centers today announced the close of an $11M Series A investment round. The round was led by Andreessen Horowitz and Citi Ventures and includes new investors Redpoint Ventures and Felicis Ventures alongside Webb Investment Network (WIN) who previously led the company's seed round. The funding will allow Pindrop Security to meet strong customer demand with additional resources in engineering, operations, sales and marketing in the US, Canada and Europe. Pindrop Security also announced that Scott Weiss, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, will join the board of directors.

"Phone systems are the weakest link in fraud and authentication for corporations and attackers are exploiting that," said Scott Weiss. "Pindrop Security has a world-class team tackling this problem. Their unique acoustic fingerprinting technology allows customers to predict unknown fraud, identify repeat criminal rings and transparently authenticate legitimate customers."

Pindrop Security provides solutions to verify the identity of phone callers. Pindrop solutions are based on patent-pending Phone Fingerprint™ technology, which analyzes phone call audio signals to identify the caller's location and calling device type and to create a unique fingerprint which can be used to match the caller to other calls they've made, regardless of attempts to mask identity and calling activity. Pindrop's solutions have provided a powerful new tool for financial institutions and other enterprises to detect malicious callers and prevent them from conducting attacks on customer accounts.

"Enterprises, and particularly financial institutions, are facing increasing volumes of attacks from sophisticated social engineering operations," said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop Security co-founder and CEO. "Pindrop's solutions are the first tool for financial institutions and enterprises to detect and stop these attacks accurately and consistently on the first call. This investment will allow us to meet the tremendous market demand we're experiencing."

The high value and number of transactions in financial services presents a unique challenge. While technologies have been developed to help protect call centers by using voice prints or signal detection techniques, they either provide too low a rate of detection or take too long to be effective, allowing attackers weeks or months of unfettered access before providing protection. The Pindrop solution is the first to accurately identify over 80% of attackers immediately, when they first call. This can save millions in losses and call time as well as improving the customer experience.

"Financial institutions are on the front lines, facing a well-organized, well-funded growth industry of cyber criminals," said Arvind Purushotham, Managing Director at Citi Ventures. "Pindrop Security developed a truly unique technology, providing a legitimate solution to address two of the biggest problems financial institutions face today, detecting attackers and seamlessly identifying legitimate callers."

"The support of such an elite group of investors is a testament to the tremendous market opportunity that exists for Pindrop," said Dr. Paul Judge, Pindrop Security Executive Chairman and co-founder. "We have formed a world-class team and built revolutionary technology that is now deployed at some of the largest companies in the world. Our vision is nothing short of bringing trust back to the phone channel and we are confident that we will continue to accelerate our growth and deliver breakthrough solutions."

About Andreessen Horowitz
Andreessen Horowitz backs bold entrepreneurs who move fast, think big and are committed to building the next major franchises in technology. Founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, we provide entrepreneurs with access to our deep expertise and insights in innovation, business development, market intelligence, executive and technical talent, and marketing and brand building. Find us in Menlo Park, Calif., and at www.a16z.com.

About Citi Ventures 
Headquartered in Palo Alto, with offices in New York and Shanghai, Citi Ventures is a unit of global financial services company Citigroup. The Citi Ventures team partners with Citi businesses internally and with leading companies externally to identify, invest in, develop, and commercialize the highest new growth opportunities around the world that directly support Citi's global business strategy. For more information visit ventures.citi.com.

About Pindrop Security
Pindrop Security provides solutions to protect enterprise call centers and phone users. Pindrop's solution combines authentication and anti-fraud detection technology to verify legitimate callers while detecting malicious callers. Pindrop's unique Acoustic Fingerprinting™ technology is the first of its kind to analyze and fingerprint individual phone calls, providing the caller's true location and calling device and matching them to Pindrop's CallDNA™ fraud database. Named SC Magazine 2013 Rookie Security Company of the Year, a Gartner "Cool Vendor" in Enterprise Unified Communications and Network Services for 2012 and one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies at the 2012 RSA conference, Pindrop Security's solutions restore enterprises' confidence in the security of phone-based transactions.
Web: pindropsecurity.com, Twitter: @pindropsecurity, Facebook: Pindrop Security

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SOURCE Pindrop Security