Major Global Banks Invest $20 Million in BioCatch and Join American Express Ventures on New Client Innovation Board

Pioneer in using online behavior for fraud detection and consumer protection extends funding round

BioCatch, the global leader in behavioral biometrics, today announced that four major global banks – Barclays, Citi, HSBC and National Australia Bank (NAB) – have invested $20 million in the company, extending the company’s recent Series C fundraising round to a total of $168 million raised.

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 proliferated since the advent of the coronavirus. BioCatch Client Innovation Board members will also work closely with each other and with the company to explore how collaboration and network effects can effectively combat online fraud and identity theft at an industrywide level.

Behavior provides powerful signals about whether online users are actually whom they purport to be, without revealing personally identifiable information. Flagging potential fraudsters before they can transfer funds from an account drives digital transformation and protects banks, their clients and their assets.

Innovation Board Members Comment:

"The BioCatch Client Innovation Board is a novel, industry-led initiative focused on online behavior, which is a powerful method to protect banking customers and other internet users from online fraud," said Dana Eli-Lorch, Managing Director at American Express Ventures. "Particularly as many businesses moved online with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, preventing digital fraud has become more important than ever. We are very excited to join the effort and continue to support BioCatch both as an investor and Client Innovation Board member."

Hilda Jenkins, Head of Customer for Digital Channels & Platforms across Mobile, Web & API at Barclays, said: "We are investing in BioCatch and joining the Innovation Board to build on our existing measures at Barclays that prevent fraud and scams. BioCatch is unique in focusing on behavior as a predictive tool to prevent online fraud and as a result can draw on a comprehensive data set to keep people safe. We’re looking forward to working with BioCatch and the innovation board members to further protect our customers and come up with innovative ways to stop fraud."

"BioCatch is defining a novel category in digital engagements and has an impressive success record in the financial industry," said Ornit Shinar, Head of Ventures Investments in Citi Israel. "We are excited to add BioCatch to the Citi Ventures portfolio."

"Behavioral biometric technology is a key strategic capability to protect our customers from the risk of fraud," said Richard Harvey, Group Head of Retail Banking Products at HSBC. "BioCatch is a leader in this space and HSBC is looking forward to strengthening its partnership through this investment and through its role as part of the company’s newly formed Client Innovation Board."

"We invest heavily in the latest cyber security and fraud detection capabilities to protect our customers," said Chris Sheehan, GM Group Investigations and Fraud, NAB. "In using device behavioral biometrics from BioCatch, we’re able to bolster our efforts to proactively detect fraud before the transfer of funds occurs, reducing the financial and emotional impact of scams for our customers."

BioCatch CEO Comments:

"We are extremely excited that five of the largest and most important global financial institutions are working with BioCatch to jointly address today’s most pressing problems in the areas of online fraud, account authentication and digital identity," said Howard Edelstein, BioCatch Chairman & CEO. "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."

Background for Editors

BioCatch has used behavioral biometrics to root out online fraud since its founding in 2011 and the cache of behavioral data the company has accumulated over the decade since is unmatched. Through continuous authentication of online sessions, behavioral biometrics flags user digital behavior that presents potential risk, without collecting personally identifiable information (PII) that would compromise user privacy. As the company’s data set has grown to more than 150 million behavior profiles and tens of billions of transactions, products have expanded to include detecting stolen or synthetic identities being used at the onboarding stage, recognizing account takeovers and flagging increasingly sophisticated social engineering scams, among other industrywide security challenges.

About BioCatch

BioCatch pioneered behavioral biometrics, which analyzes an online user’s physical and cognitive digital behavior to protect users and their assets, all the while protecting user privacy. Today, customers around the globe leverage BioCatch’s unique insights to more effectively fight fraud, drive digital transformation and accelerate business growth. With nearly a decade of data, over 50 global patents and unparalleled experience analyzing online behavior, BioCatch is the leader in behavioral biometrics. For more information, please visit www.biocatch.com

Read more at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/major-global-banks-invest-20-120000622.html