AimBrain, a London-based startup using machine learning to help financial services firms tap into biometric authentication, has raised £4 million in a Series A funding round led by BGF Ventures.
With mobile and internet banking fraud rising steeply, financial institutions are increasingly turning away from old-fashioned password-based security and towards biometrics.
AimBrain's platform combines facial and voice recognition technology with behavioural biometrics which track how a person uses a device, such as their typing speed, touch pressure and how much their hand shakes as they hold it.
The firm says that it has built up a team of world class machine learning experts and PhDs to build its platform and it has already set up sales offices in Johannesburg, Lagos, Dubai and Abu Dhabi as it seeks to win over banks.
Firms can use the behavioural authentication tech in the background of an app, or voice analysis at call centres and facial recognition at ATMs or in-branch. But the platform also offers the ability to use these modules in combination. If the behavioural analysis shows uncertainty about a customer's identity when they are transacting on an app then that customer could be asked to step up to facial or voice recognition as well.
Says co-founder Andrius Sutas: "No single biometric is good enough in itself. To mitigate as much risk as possible, you need a platform approach. In both testing and live production, our technology has consistently outperformed the market, even on a single module."