Biometric login company Transmit Security raises a massive $543m.
Transmit Security, whose technology uses biometric authentication designed to replace the need for passwords on websites, said Tuesday it raised a massive $543 million in Series A funding.
The round, one of the largest in Israeli history, was also the largest Series A funding round in cybersecurity history and one of the highest valuations for a bootstrapped company, the Tel Aviv and Boston-based company said.
Israeli companies have now raised more than $11 billion in the first six months of the year, surpassing the total raised for all of 2020.
The round was led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with additional investment from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures. The funding will be used to increase the company’s reach and expand its primary business functions, the company said.
Research shows that 55% of consumers stop using a website because the login process is too complex, and 92% of consumers will abandon an online purchase instead of going through the steps to recover or reset login credentials, Transmit said. In addition, weak passwords account for more than 80% of all data breaches and are the result of the majority of all account takeovers. Transmit Security’s biometric authentication provides a password-free identity and risk-management solution to the largest brands in the world, improving the user experience, enhancing security and satisfying compliance requirements at a fraction of the time and cost of traditional identity solutions.
“Every time I see a login button on a website, I get anxious. Whenever an app texts me a code that I have to enter, I become frustrated with the process.
We’ve all learned to suffer and accept the terrible user experience and poor security that comes with passwords just because that’s the way it has always worked in the past,” said Transmit president and co-founder Rakesh Loonkar. “Transmit Security is offering application owners a new reality: The ability to go ‘passwordless’ no matter the size of their organization or number of users. The fact that we have raised a record amount of funding is a clear indication that the world is ready to eliminate passwords and embrace biometric authentication technology so that they can deliver enhanced user experiences combined with significantly heightened levels of security.”
Transmit’s round is one of many significant investments that Israel’s hi-tech
community is celebrating this week. On Monday, cybersecurity company SentinelOne filed the prospectus for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange at a $7b. valuation. That would make it one Israel’s largest IPOs ever, and Israel’s second-most valuable cybersecurity company after Check Point Software.
In addition, JoyTunes, whose popular app for learning to play musical instruments has been downloaded millions of times, is raising $50m. at a $1b. valuation, according to media reports.
DataRails, a financial reporting platform, said it extended its series A financing round to $43.5m., adding $25m. to the $18.5m. it raised in April and doubling its valuation. The additional investment will be used to manage the company’s rapid expansion, which has doubled in valuation and of its customer base within four months.
Identi Medical, which developed a cloud platform for the management of medical implants and narcotics in operating and procedure rooms, completed an IPO on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange Tuesday, raising NIS 27 million at a value of NIS 75m. The company’s automated sensors streamline inventory management and help hospitals gain a complete picture of the costs and charges for surgeries and other medical procedures, which are their main source of revenues.
Nostromo, a cold-energy storage company offering advanced energy storage technology based on modular ice cells for commercial and industrial buildings, said Monday it completed a merger with the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) listed company Somoto, raising $13.6m. in the process.
Clair Labs, a Tel Aviv-based start-up developing contact-free patient monitoring technology, raised $9m. in a seed funding round. The company, founded in 2018, can acquire physiological markers of a patient without any physical contact, and is targeting the remote healthcare market that is changing the way patients receive care, the company said.
Finally, Equinom, a plant-based nutrition company based in Givat Brenner, said Tuesday it raised $20m. in Series C funding to expand its operations in sales, marketing, research and development across the globe. The company leverages a novel approach to develop new non-GMO varieties of novel grains to create higher-quality ingredients for innovative plant-based foods. The company said it has over 100,000 acres grown across five continents throughout the world, and has secured millions of dollars in contracts with leading food brands.