BioCatch monitors users’ online behaviour to prevent online frauds & scams; raises €17M from major global banks

Over the past few decades, the business paradigm has evolved tremendously, but unfortunately, so has the nature of threats faced by the businesses. Cyberattack is one of the major threats that loom large over businesses, with each attack incurring millions in damages to organizations. According to an Accenture report, the total cost of cybercrime for each company increased by 12 percent – from US$11.7M (approx €9.9M) in 2017 to US$13M (approx €11M) in 2018. Between 2013 and 2018, the average cost increased by 72 percent, and the average number of security breaches increased by 67 percent. 

There has also been a surge in cyberattacks due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and businesses feel the need to protect their valuable data, now more than ever. This is where companies like BioCatch come into play; offering a more secure solution for safeguarding data. 

The Israeli-based behavioural biometrics company, BioCatch, announced that four major global banks–Barclays, Citi, HSBC, and National Australia Bank (NAB) – have invested $20M (approx €17M) in the company, extending the company’s recent Series C fundraising round to a total of $168M (nearly €143.2M) raised.

Getting on board 

BioCatch was founded in 2011 by Avi Turgeman, and the late Benny Rosenbaum. They were later joined by Uri Rivner (as Chief Cyber Officer). The company’s chairman and CEO is Howard Edelstein, a fintech pioneer, who has been advising BioCatch since 2015 on behalf of OurCrowd – an investment platform built for accredited investors and institutions to invest in startups and venture funds.

In conjunction with the funding, BioCatch has established the BioCatch Client Innovation Board. The invitation-only Innovation Board will be a collaborative forum where members will meet regularly to develop new, creative, and cutting-edge ways to leverage and scale the unique attributes of behavior. The four investing banks and longtime BioCatch investor American Express Ventures will each be allocated two seats on the Client Innovation Board.

Innovation Board members will offer insights on the latest industry trends and ideas for new BioCatch offerings and technology.

One of the board’s key focus areas will be on the development of advanced solutions that stay ahead of online fraud, which has multiplied since the advent of the COVID-19.

BioCatch chairman and CEO Howard Edelstein says, “We have already seen the power of collaboration in solving difficult problems in other areas of the financial services industry, such as clearing corps, transaction networks, post-trade processing, margin calculation, and collateral management, when banks work together and share knowledge, workflow, and data in the common interest.”

Behavioral biometrics is the catch

BioCatch claims to have pioneered behavioural biometrics, which analyses an online user’s physical and cognitive digital behaviour to protect users and their assets, all the while protecting user privacy.

Unlike traditional security methods such as usernames and passwords, which are easily compromised, behavioural biometrics monitor user behavior throughout each online session, providing continuous protection and ensuring a secure and seamless online experience.

According to the company, its data set has grown to more than 150 million behaviour profiles and tens of billions of transactions. This has enabled it to come up with new products, including detecting stolen or synthetic identities being used at the onboarding stage, recognising account takeovers, and flagging increasingly sophisticated social engineering scams, among other industry-wide security challenges.

BioCatch’s behavioural biometrics technology protects some of the world’s largest financial institutions, and their clients’ assets from fraud and other types of criminal activity, including sophisticated social engineering voice scams. The company has offices in Tel Aviv, London, and the US.

The company grew annual recurring revenues by 150% in 2019 and now counts more than 40 of the world’s largest global financial institutions as customers.

Image credit: BioCatch