NEW YORK, Feb. 22, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Invisible, un-phishable multi-factor authentication (MFA) provider Beyond Identity today announced a $100 million Series C funding round, which raises the company’s total funding to date to $205 million and propels its valuation to $1.1 billion. Evolution Equity Partners led the round, with existing investors New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Jim Clark participating. Potentum Partners, Expanding Capital, and HBAM also joined the round. The new funding will be used to further expand Beyond Identity’s research and development and extend the company’s footprint and resources into Asia-Pacific and Latin America. Additionally, the “Father of SSL” and 2019 Marconi Prize recipient Taher Elgamal of Evolution Equity Partners will be joining the Beyond Identity Board of Directors.
Few, if any, disagree that passwords – the root cause of over 80% of breaches – need to be eliminated. But every day brings new evidence that well-intentioned talk is cheap, and the cost of waiting – or half-solutions – is becoming vastly more expensive. From easily phishable MFA and an abundance of malicious toolkits that can intercept 2FA codes, to government warnings regarding millions of compromised accounts leading directly to ransomware and account takeover attacks, it has become clear that companies must act now. In its recent report on emerging technologies and trends for 2022, industry watcher Gartner designated passwordless authentication as a critical technology for “ubiquitous and transparent security” that should be adopted as soon as possible.
“As an industry, we are coming dangerously close to being complicit in cybercrime,” said TJ Jermoluk, Co-founder and CEO of Beyond Identity. “Pouring truckloads of VC and PE money into legacy authentication technology will not protect companies. Throwing money at security ‘controls’ that criminals consistently evade, in an attempt to inexplicably protect and preserve the gaping hole that is passwords, is not only funding failure, it’s knowingly failing companies and customers. Password managers, phishable MFA, and outdated VPN technologies are not the answer and will not close the wide-open door that criminals waltz through every day. Today’s announcement sends a loud message that failure is no longer an option.”
Beyond Identity is leading the charge with a state-of-the-art MFA solution that cryptographically binds a user’s identity to their devices. The system uses proven public/private key technology and X.509 certificates, completely removing passwords from the authentication and account recovery process instead of simply obscuring them. The core architecture combined with the company’s modern authenticator and advanced policy engine ensures that only authorized users and authorized devices are granted access, and that every device complies with security policies before and after the authentication request.
“Ensuring that we control exactly who is accessing our systems is only half of the battle,” said Mario Duarte, Vice President of Security at Snowflake. “The other critical component is to ensure that the devices they are using to access our critical systems and data are secure at the time of login and remain secure after that. Beyond Identity created a next-generation authentication solution that does both and is an important part of our zero trust program.”
Beyond Identity’s new funding comes at a time of record growth and momentum for the company. Annual recurring revenue (ARR) rose by 330% from 2020 to 2021, its roster of customers grew 640%, and the company now has more than 180 employees across North America and EMEA – including a standout engineering team with over 100 developers. In 2021, the company launched Secure Customers and Secure DevOps to complement its existing Secure Work product and added dozens of integrations with identity and cybersecurity products across MDM, EDR, SIEM, code repositories, and more.
“Passwords are still the number one attack vector in most breaches,” said Elgamal. “The industry has made progress to create solutions that shield passwords, but these solutions had both security and usability limitations. Beyond Identity provides a completely passwordless authentication ecosystem that has superior security and usability properties. We’re very excited to participate in this funding round to help the company further accelerate its growth and help customers remove one of the greatest cybersecurity risks they face today.”
About Beyond Identity
Beyond Identity is fundamentally changing how the world logs in with a groundbreaking invisible, un-phishable MFA platform that provides the most secure and frictionless authentication on the planet. We stop ransomware and account takeover attacks in their tracks and dramatically improve the user experience. Beyond Identity’s state-of-the-art platform eliminates passwords and other phishable factors, enabling organizations to confidently validate users’ identities. The solution ensures users log in from authorized devices, and that the device meets the security policy requirements during login and continuously after that. Our revolutionary approach empowers zero trust by cryptographically binding the user’s identity to their device and analyzing hundreds of risk signals on an ongoing basis. The company’s advanced risk policy engine enables organizations to implement foundationally secure authentication and utilize risk signals for protection, rather than just for detection and response. For more information on why Intuit, Snowflake, and Roblox use Beyond Identity, please visit www.beyondidentity.com.
About Evolution Equity Partners
Evolution Equity Partners, based in New York City, Palo Alto, London and Zurich, makes investments in rapidly growing cybersecurity and enterprise software companies that safeguard our digital world. The firm was founded by investor and technology entrepreneurs Richard Seewald and Dennis Smith, who manage and lead the firm, and its partners have been involved as founders, investors and as senior operating executives in leading software companies around the world. Evolution currently has over $1 billion of assets under management in a growing portfolio of market leading companies. Learn more at www.evolutionequity.com and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter.
