Citi Ventures, the venture capital arm of financial services firm Citi, joined Israel-based identity authentication software developer Transmit Security’s $543m series A round yesterday.
Investment bank Goldman Sachs’ Asset Management subsidiary has also come onboard. The round was disclosed in June this year and was co-led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic and backed by Cyberstarts, Geodesic, Syn Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners and Artisanal Ventures.
Transmit Security has developed authentication software which eschews passwords in favour of biometrics. The round values it at $2.2bn pre-money and the company said it had previously been bootstrapped after being founded in 2014.
Mickey Boodaei, co-founder and CEO of Transmit Security, said: “We are incredibly honoured to have globally recognised investment partners like Citi Ventures and Goldman Sachs that not only believe in our mission to rid the world of passwords, but also partners that believe in our leadership.
“Our approach to passwordless authentication increases security while also making things easier for individuals, who no longer have to authenticate their identity multiple times on different devices or reset forgotten passwords to gain access.
“That means our customers can focus on their core business instead of having to solve security and authentication problems.”
Arvind Purushotham, Citi Ventures’ global head of venture investing, added: “The Transmit Security team is solving a password protection problem that has plagued companies for years, and up until now there has not been a solution that can seamlessly and securely integrate into existing platforms.”
