Martin Casado also Joins as Board Member and Marc Andreessen as Board Observer
ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwired - February 23, 2017) - Pindrop, the pioneer in voice security and authentication, today announced new board additions including John Chambers, executive chairman at Cisco, and Martin Casado, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Marc Andreessen, co-founder and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz has also joined as a Board Observer. In addition, Chambers has personally invested in the company.
"We are thrilled to have John, Martin and Marc partnering with us as voice becomes the interface of the future. John is going to help scale Pindrop to new heights, Marc is helping with our audacious vision, and Martin knows how to create and dominate a market," said Vijay Balasubramaniyan, CEO and co-founder of Pindrop. "These three entrepreneurs have all created global ecosystems and will help accelerate our growth and expansion in the voice security and authentication market."
"From my first interaction with Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Pindrop's CEO and co-founder, I was taken by his vision and passion for tackling hard problems. In 2016, Pindrop doubled their customer base, solving massive security problems for Fortune 500 companies," said John Chambers, executive chairman, Cisco. "My investment in Pindrop was made to help drive the voice revolution. I believe the company is well positioned for long term success and I am honored to be working closely with Vijay and his executive team."
Pindrop's growth among enterprise call centers is driven by its success in mitigating its customers' exposure to rapidly-expanding fraud totaling $10 Billion in fraud losses in the US alone last year. Call center fraud is up more than 100% year-over-year as companies are investing more heavily in physical and online security. Pindrop's Phoneprinting(TM) technology solutions are catching 80% of fraudulent calls while protecting hundreds of millions of calls annually.
100 billion phone calls happen every month, moving around trillions of dollars in stock trades, wire transfers, product purchases, travel bookings, etc. The old methods of keeping the phone lines safe no longer work. For example, when you call a bank they will most likely ask you basic questions to authenticate you like your first pet's name, mother's maiden name and your social security number. Fraud rings have all this info due to ongoing identity hacks and even low level criminals can easily find out that information on Facebook or through a simple Google search.
Pindrop's Incredible Momentum in 2016 Pindrop provides Fortune 500 companies with the security technology necessary to mitigate losses from call center fraud, which in the US has increased more than 100% year-over-year. According to Pindrop's most recent 2016 US data, 1 in 937 calls into the call center were fraudulent, compared to 1 in 2,000 calls in 2015.
In 2016, Pindrop achieved the following milestones:
- Doubled its customer base and saw revenues increase more than 100% year-over-year.
- Broad customer adoption now includes eight of the top 10 US banks alongside two of top five insurance carriers. Pindrop also saw substantial growth in the retail, healthcare, e-commerce and government sectors as it expands beyond its existing vertical base.
- A 500% increase in calls protected by Pindrop year-over-year.
- Opened its London office and won its first customer in Europe, Lloyds Banking Group
- Added key executives to its management team, including Robert Krohn, a seasoned former Cisco executive, as SVP of Engineering; Clarissa Cerda, former EVP, Chief Legal Officer for LifeLock and former White House lawyer, as General Counsel, and Jacki Hertenstein, a VMware HR veteran, as VP of People.
- Added more than 100 employees worldwide, totaling 255 employees at the end of 2016.
- John, Martin and Marc join the existing board members that include Somesh Dash, IVP, Gene Frantz, CapitalG, Arvind Purushotham, Citi Ventures, Paul Judge, Chairman and co-founder of Pindrop.
About Pindrop Pindrop is the pioneer in voice security and authentication. Pindrop provides enterprise solutions to reduce fraud losses and authentication expense for some of the largest call centers in the world. Pindrop's patented Phoneprinting(TM) technology helps identify, locate and authenticate phone devices uniquely from the call audio, thereby detecting fraudulent calls as well as verifying legitimate callers. Pindrop has been selected by the world's largest banks, insurers, brokerages and retailers, detecting over 80 percent of fraud. Pindrop's solutions are allowing customers to reduce call time and improve their customer's experience even while reducing fraud losses. Pindrop was founded in 2011 and is venture backed by Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG, Citi Ventures, Felicis Ventures, GV and IVP.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Contact: Ken Shuman Head of Global Communications kshuman@pindrop.com 415-517-7211
