Pindrop brings voice authentication to IoT devices, intelligent assistants, and connected cars

Forget passwords and PIN codes — Pindrop wants to make our lives more secure with voice biometrics. The Atlanta, Georgia-based company today announced Voice Identity Platform, a speech authentication solution for IoT, voice assistants, smart homes and offices, and connected cars.
Its platform-agnostic tech is akin to Google’s Voice Match in Google Assistant, which can differentiate among the unique voice signatures of up to 10 Google Home users, and Amazon’s voice profiles in Alexa.
“Voice has emerged as the interface for more than 100 million consumer and enterprise devices, and yet customers lack the level of security, identity, and trust that are offered by traditional channels,” said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop cofounder, CEO, and CTO. “Voice is the only interface that elegantly combines content, intent, and identity, allowing frictionless authentication at the same time as communicating at the speed of thought.”
Voice Identity Platform has the potential to eliminate the need for codes when using intelligent assistants, Balasubramaniyan explained — the codes some assistants require in order to complete a transaction, connect to a bank or brokerage account, or disable a connected alarm system.
Moreover, he says, it might improve the security of shared workplace devices, like conference room speakers. To that end, Voice Identity Platform can accurately identify specific individuals on conference calls.
On the automotive front, Pindrop has partnered with several unnamed automotive manufacturers to provide “voice-enabled experiences” for drivers. And Balasubramaniyan says the company will work to integrate its voice authentication tech in health care and commercial facilities.
Pindrop’s patented Pindrop Protect technology takes into account factors such as location, behavior, device type, audio, voice, and time of day to confirm identity. By scoring each voice interaction based on AI-driven anomaly detection and using voice printing to correlate matches with what Pindrop claims is one of the world’s largest audio databases of its kind, the company contends it is able to lower handle times by up to 60 seconds.
Pindrop and Verizon Enterprise Solutions last month jointly announced the Verizon VoIP Inbound Anti-Fraud and Authentication service, which integrates voice and multifactor authentications for enterprise call centers. And the company says it’s actively securing more than 1 billion voice transactions a year for global Fortune 500 enterprise clients, such as Allegion.
“In 2019, Allegion and Pindrop are focused on bringing an extra layer of security to internet of things (IoT) devices. Following Allegion Ventures’ strategic investment in Pindrop during its Series D funding round, we are exploring how to leverage our unique technologies to drive both improved security and seamless access,” said Rob Martens, Allegion futurist and president of Allegion Ventures. “Allegion’s brands, like Schlage, Von Duprin, and LCN, are well-known pioneers across consumer, commercial, educational, and health care markets. We see tremendous potential for voice authentication solutions, and Pindrop has tremendous expertise in this area.”
Pindrop provides a suite of multifactor anti-fraud and authentication software for call centers, and it recently announced a $90 million Series D funding round led by Vitruvian Partners, with participation from Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek, Dimension Data, EDBI, Goldman Sachs, and existing investors CapitalG, IVP, Andreessen Horowitz, GV (formerly Google Ventures), and Citi Ventures. To date, it has attracted $212 million in investments
The company currently counts eight of the 10 largest banks in the U.S. among its clientele and says it has helped protect over 200 million consumer accounts and saved over $350 million in voice-based fraud and attacks this year alone.
Source: VentureBeat