BioCatch raises $145M to accelerate growth and expand mission-critical behavioral insights
BioCatch, the global leader in behavioral biometrics, announced it has completed a $145 million Series C investment led by Bain Capital Tech Opportunities, the growth investing business of Bain Capital.
Also joining the round are new investors including Industry Ventures as well as existing shareholders American Express Ventures, CreditEase, Maverick Ventures and OurCrowd, among others. The investment will accelerate BioCatch’s rapid growth, broaden its product offerings and further support its expanding client base into new verticals.
BioCatch’s category-defining behavioral biometrics technology seeks to protect some of the world’s largest financial institutions, their clients and their clients’ assets from fraud and other types of criminal activity, including sophisticated social engineering voice scams.
Unlike traditional security methods such as usernames and passwords, which are easily compromised, behavioral biometrics monitors user behavior throughout each online session, providing continuous protection and ensuring a secure and seamless online experience.
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.
“BioCatch’s growth in annual recurring revenue and client base speaks directly to the growing demand for our service and the increasing number of use cases we are able to support,” said Howard Edelstein, BioCatch Chairman & CEO.
“The current environment has spawned a large increase in bad actors seeking to take advantage of distracted individuals working from home or dispersed companies whose technologists are scattered in remote locations. In such times, technologies like behavioral biometrics become more important than ever.
“We are also excited to partner with a leading technology investor like Bain Capital, as well as grateful for the continued confidence of our existing investors, who know the company better than anyone. We look forward to working together with this outstanding group of investors to further scale the company.”
As the behavioral biometrics market has grown, BioCatch’s solution has resonated within other verticals. The company signed its first eCommerce client in 2019 and is planning to launch in the public sector in 2020. Use cases have also expanded as the company’s client base and data set have enabled new solutions across the digital lifecycle.
BioCatch is addressing some of the most pressing challenges today, including detecting the use of stolen or synthetic identities at the onboarding stage, recognizing account takeovers and flagging increasingly sophisticated social engineering scams.
Bain Capital has deep investing experience across the cybersecurity and financial technology sectors, having invested in and added value to a wide range of early-stage to mature software companies such as Blue Coat (acquired by NortonLifeLock), InAuth (Acquired by American Express), RDC, Trooly and WorldPay (acquired by FIS).
“BioCatch has quickly established itself as a pioneer in the digital identity space by developing next-generation behavioral biometrics technology that integrates fraud detection and authentication capabilities to protect end-users and their most sensitive transactions.
“Their technology is highly applicable to other verticals beyond financial services that have the same need to balance fraud and the user experience,” said Dewey Awad, a Managing Director at Bain Capital Tech Opportunities.
“We look forward to partnering with Howard and his team to expand the platform while remaining focused on serving the needs of clients and their end-users around the world.”