On Wednesday, McLean, Va.-based Araxid — a provider of cybersecurity software-as-a-service focused on shoring up cloud-based business transactions — raised a $12.5 million Series A funding round led by venture giant Bessemer Venture Partners and Alexandria, Virginia favorite Columbia Capital. Arun Gupta, a partner at Columbia Capital, also joins the board with the move.
The funds will be used to take the company's technology—which is currently being used by companies in the healthcare and public service sectors—and bring it to industries such as retail, telecom and financial services, according to Araxid.
“Not only is Araxid technology faster and less expensive than traditional matching technologies, it is far more accurate,” Araxid CEO Mark LaRow said in a press release.
Decades ago, it was the banking industry that first led a massive-scale adoption of risk-based authentication systems. It remains pervasive throughout the industry to this day, but it still has its challenges.
Araxid offers a next-generation SaaS-based technology for resolving linking and privatizing disparate identities stored in one or more databases. It is a departure from traditional methods (such as so-called “probabilistic matching”); the startup uses a new model for identity matching called “truth matching.”
LinkedIn shows that the privately held company currently employs 23 individuals with “offices across the US and Europe.”
According to the Araxid press release, the market for "identity resolution" is "expected to grow to almost $1B in 2015 in response to this pervasive problem.” As these threats have become more sophisticated, it's clear that risk-based authentication software must be more responsive.
