Israel’s Transmit Security Holds Largest Series A Funding in Cybersecurity History — Hits $2.2 Billion Valuation

Transmit Security (Twitter)

Transmit Security is an Israeli cybersecurity startup which specializes in passwordless authentication. The company is now a unicorn with a $2.2 billion valuation. Transmit just raised a whopping $543 million in what is the largest Series A financing round ever held by a cybersecurity startup. The round was led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, with additional investment from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures.

For now a unicorn is defined as a startup worth more than $1 billion. This may originally come from Yiddish and Hebrew speakers do this all the time, so please forgive us for the following: Unicorn Shmunicorn! Israeli firms have now made that designation meaningless, and if not they certainly will soon. Whoever it is in the business world that gets to coin the terms like Unicorn, angel investor, or even what defines a startup to begin with will have to change the definition of a unicorn or just come up with a new word entirely.

And it certainly makes sense that such record breaking investment rounds are coming from cybersecurity startups. There is a reason why cybersecurity startups are so valuable today. Hackers are not only motivated by money or politics. They often just like being malicious. So even small companies need to be on their guard and be sure to properly protect their systems.
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One of the biggest problems in security comes from passwords. Everybody hates how they need to constantly update their passwords. Different websites and services require a password update as frequently as every six months. Or they change their policy and require an even longer password with more variety of characters. And no one wants to use the same password for everything because if just one gets hacked then all of their passwords will be known.

Now imagine never needing to use passwords again. Now you understand why Transmit Security is so valuable.

Founded in 2014, Transmit Security states that its mission is to transform the identity experience market by ushering in a new era of passwordless authentication. “From onboarding to authentication to smart authorization for both customers and workforce across every channel, our technology reduces all forms of identity attrition and saves enterprises substantial costs,” boasts Transmit.

Transmit Security Mickey Boodaei. (PR Pic Credit Omri Erel)

The company says that worldwide large enterprises are standardizing on Transmit Security to introduce innovative digital identity journeys. Customers include six of the seven largest financial institutions in the U.S, two of the largest merchants in the U.S., and many financial organizations, merchants and online service providers in Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Transmit explains that organizations lose millions of dollars annually and place themselves and their customers at high risk due to password-based authentication that is inherently unsafe, delivers poor user experience, leaves customers unsatisfied and places brands at risk of jeopardizing their reputations. The company says that research shows 55% of consumers stop using a website because the login process is too complex, while 87.5% find themselves locked out of an online account after too many failed login attempts. Even worse, 92% of consumers will completely abandon a website without completing a purchase instead of going through the steps to recover or reset login credentials.

“Passwordless authentication is so much more than ensuring customers can easily and seamlessly access their information, their accounts and make purchases – it’s about revolutionizing the way companies interact with their customers. By eliminating passwords, businesses can immediately reduce churn and cart abandonment and provide superior security for personal data,” said Transmit Security CEO and Co-Founder Mickey Boodaei. “Our customers, whether they are in the retail, banking, financial, telecommunications or automotive sectors, understand that providing an optimized identity experience is a multimillion dollar challenge. With this latest round of funding from premier partners, we can significantly expand our reach to help rid the world of passwords.”

“Every time I see a login button on a website, I get anxious. Whenever an app texts me a code that I have to enter, I become frustrated with the process. We’ve all learned to suffer and accept the terrible user experience and poor security that comes with passwords just because that’s the way it has always worked in the past,” said Rakesh Loonkar, President and Co-Founder, Transmit Security. “Transmit Security is offering application owners a new reality: The ability to go passwordless no matter the size of their organization or number of users. The fact that we have raised a record amount of funding is a clear indication that the world is ready to eliminate passwords and embrace biometric authentication technology so that they can deliver enhanced user experiences combined with significantly heightened levels of security.”