Pindrop Raises $90 Million Series D to Fuel Global Expansion

Pindrop®, the leader in voice security and authentication, today announced it has closed $90M in Series D funding led by Vitruvian Partners. Other new strategic investors include Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, Singapore-based EDBI, and Goldman Sachs. Existing investors -- CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV (formerly Google Ventures) and Citi Ventures also invested in the round.

“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.

The company has seen significant growth and traction, including:

• 8 of the 10 largest banks and 5 of the 7 largest insurance companies in the U.S. are Pindrop customers
• 137% compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) in revenue over the last three years
• Currently protects over 200 million consumer accounts and has stopped over $350 million in voice-based fraud and attacks in 2018
• Expected triple digit growth in EMEA Bookings in 2019
• 118% net revenue retention with existing customers, in line with the top 15 public companies

Pindrop has also added world-class members to the management team, including:

• Burney Barker as Chief Revenue Officer (previously Gigamon, Dell EMC and VCE)
• Jeff Hodges as Chief Financial Officer (previously Kabbage, Official Payments, and Firethorn)

International Expansion Based on Growth Momentum

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.

Beyond the Call Center: IoT

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.”

Expanding our Presence in the Phone Ecosystem: Telcos

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.

Supporting Quotes:

“Voice is fast emerging as the next generation human user interface (UI) with wide consumer and commercial applications, yet security remains a major concern. Pindrop's world class AI voice security technology will be a significant enabler for wider voice UI adoption, beyond call centers. Our investment in Pindrop is in line with Singapore’s trusted position as both a leading global financial centre in Asia and a development hub for new human-centric digital services. We look forward to working closely with Pindrop as a like-minded innovative player in Singapore’s vibrant AI ecosystem for their Asia expansion,” said Chu Swee Yeok, Chief Executive and President of EDBI.

“Dimension Data’s global footprint of clients provides a distinct perspective of the market. We recognize a huge opportunity to secure the call center and voice ecosystem.” said Nemo Verbist, Group Executive for Customer Experience at Dimension Data. “Pindrop’s solution solves a key set of problems around security and identity in voice. We’re delighted to be an investor and look forward to our partnership to deliver the solution to our clients.”

“Voice based systems, both phone and IoT based, have traditionally been vulnerable to a range of security threats and fraud because of a lack of robust identity and security technology. At Pindrop, we are bringing trust and security into voice based interactions to enable the evolution of voice as the next computer interface,” said Dr. Paul Judge, Executive Chairman and Cofounder of Pindrop.

About Pindrop

Pindrop® solutions are leading the way to the future of voice by establishing the standard for identity, security and trust for every voice interaction. Pindrop solutions protect some of the biggest banks, insurers, and retailers in the world using patented technology that extracts an unrivaled amount of intelligence from every call and voice encountered. Pindrop solutions help detect fraudsters and authenticate genuine customers, reducing fraud and operational costs, while improving customer experience and protecting brand reputation. Pindrop, a privately held company, headquartered in Atlanta, GA, was founded in 2011 by Dr. Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Dr. Paul Judge and Dr. Mustaque Ahamad and is venture-backed by Andreessen Horowitz, Citi Ventures, Felicis Ventures, CapitalG, GV, IVP and Vitruvian Partners. For more information, please visit pindrop.com.

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Contact information

Melissa Garrett
Pindrop@thehatchagency.com