Online fraud prevention startup Darwinium pockets $28.2 million Series A

Digital security and fraud prevention startup Darwinium has raised for the second time in 12 months, banking US$18 million (A$28m) in a Series A.

The round was led by US Venture Partners (USVP), with last year’s Seed investors, Blackbird, Airtree and Accomplice topping up their stakes.

The US-based customer protection platform was founded by Bondi entrepreneur Alisdair Faulkner, after he sold his previous cybersecurity startup, ThreatMetrix, for more than A$1.2 billion in 2018.

In November last year Faulkner banked a A$15.6m Seed round for his latest idea, which has been embraced by the fintech, eCommerce, financial services and gambling sectors has they look to fend off online fraud.

Darwinium offers visibility and control across digital interactions – the web, apps and APIs – to separate good and bad behaviour, in real time to allow companies to respond to issues immediately. 

Faulkner said this company’s SaaS-based approach to managing sensitive customer data identities encrypts and anonymises data, that’s stored within an organisation’s own infrastructure, with its own keys. The platform uses a fully anonymised version of the data that can be processed and leveraged globally while remaining unexposed/unrecoverable to fraudsters. 

“AI capabilities have given fraudsters the upper hand of speed, scale and greater efficiency. This is why we designed Darwinium to deliver the visibility and coverage of a security tool, the context and insight of fraud solutions, with the agility of AI. It’s the platform that will future-proof organizations against the most complex attacks,” he said.

“With this round, we can more effectively execute on our vision to protect every customer from the consequences of fraud, scams and abuse.”

USVP general partner Rick Lewis said Faulkner’s team “has built something truly unique” in fraud detection. 

“Darwinium offers a product that is both simple to deploy and effective at reducing fraud losses and reputational damage associated with the ever-more complex web of digital fraud,” he said.

“Darwinium is a game-changer, differentiated in a crowded market, offering the innovation that businesses are asking for to simplify their risk stack.”