The leaders of a newly unveiled Los Altos startup think they've found a solution to the pain of passwords — and they've raised a big round of funding to help them prove it.
There are numerous alternative ways to authenticate people, including facial recognition, so-called magic keys, social links and one-time use access codes sent through texts or email. Descope Inc.'s technology is designed to help software developers easily incorporate whichever method they wish.
"Everybody hates passwords," Descope CEO Slavik Markovich told the Business Journal. "Providing passwordless authentication should be three lines of code and then you move on to the next thing without worrying about maintaining or updating it. That's what we offer."
Descope, which came out of stealth mode on Wednesday, is entering what's expected to be a booming market. Global revenue for passwordless authentication is forecast to nearly double in the next five years from $18.5 billion in 2023 to $34.1 billion in 2027, according to Statista.
A survey by Enterprise Strategy Group recently showed that 85% of IT and cybersecurity professionals say that adopting passwordless technology is one of their top priorities.
The company has already found some believers in the venture community. It's raised a gonzo $53 million seed round in a deal led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and GGV Capital, it announced Wednesday. George Kurtz, CEO of cybersecurity stalwart CrowdStrike Inc., was among the other investors in the deal.
Some 80 percent of the cyber attacks or compromises CrowdStrike sees involve some form of identity or credential theft, Kurtz said in Descope's funding announcement. Because of that, developers need to think seriously about how they authenticate users, he said.
"Descope is taking a unique approach to identity and raising the bar for cyber adversaries," Kurtz said.
The startup had little trouble raising funds, Markovich said, crediting his experienced eight-member founding team. He and his team previously headed and led the engineering at Demisto Inc., a Cupertino-based cybersecurity startup Palo Alto Networks acquired in 2019 for $560 million.
"We were ready to start something new last April after putting in our dues for three years at Palo Alto Networks," Markovich said.
Descope plans to use its new funding to further develop its technology and begin marketing its products and services, he said.
The company now employs 29 people who are spread across its headquarters; Austin, Texas; and Israel. Markovich wants to grow his team carefully but expects to employ about 50 people by year's end.
"We have a lot of experience and know pretty much who we want to have join us," he said. "That's one of the advantages of having been in this for as long as we have."
Other backers of Descope's seed round include angel investors John W. Thompson, the former CEO of Symantec Corp.; Rubrik Inc. CEO Bipul Sinha; and Wiz Inc. CEO Assaf Rappaport. Unusual Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Cerca Partners, Tech Aviv, J Ventures and Silicon Valley CISO Investments (SVCI) also participated in the deal.
