Futurae raises CHF 5 million to accelerate international expansion and product development of its fully managed authentication platform

07.04.2021 08:00, Guillaume Tinsel

Futurae Technologies AG, an authentication and transaction confirmation provider, has received a CHF 5 million investment from several investors, namely the European leading financial services provider Euroclear and the existing investors AXA Venture Partners, Zürcher Kantonalbank, and EquityPitcher Ventures. The investment allows the company to expand its team to grow in two key areas: accelerating international expansion and growing its fully managed authentication platform.

With its increased security requirements, digitalization continues to advance rapidly, especially in the financial services industry. At a time when secure digital interactions are more important than ever, Futurae's innovative platform addresses the pain points enterprises face with strong customer authentication: exploding help desk costs, customer loss throughout the digital journey, and increased fraud, to name a few.

Over the past three years, more than 100 banks with users across over 50 countries have selected Futurae as their authentication platform. Futurae will continue its European market expansion,  building upon its first banking customers in Germany,  France, and Austria. The Futurae platform is also being enhanced with machine-learning capabilities to detect fraud faster and more accurately,  all the while supporting customers with what they really need: usable solutions for their users.

Futurae Technologies was founded by Sandra Tobler, CEO, an experienced businesswoman and thought leader in fintech and the financial ecosystem,  and two security and usability experts are known throughout the industry for their research. Nikolaos Karapanos, CTO, with a Ph.D. in authentication and web security,  and Claudio Marforio, COO and head of product, with a Ph.D. in mobile security and usability.

"The customer authentication market is stuck with insecure and unusable solutions that dampen user engagement and break the digital journey. The main driver of our rapid growth, besides the high usability and ease of integration, is the fact that we help our customers to massively reduce their high support costs", said Sandra Tobler, CEO of Futurae.

"With many years of experience in operations management roles, I've lived first hand the struggles companies face when introducing security solutions", said Michael Shipton, who recently joined Futurae's board of directors and is an executive director on the board of Euroclear Switzerland.

Source: Futurae Technologies Press Releases 07.04.2021

Futurae Technologies won Venture Kick in 2017 and participated in Venture Leaders Fintech the same year. They were also ranked in the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award from 2018 to 2020. We interviewed Gaetano Mecenero, CMO of Futurae about his entrepreneurial path.

How will this 5 million investment help achieve your vision?
The investment allows us to expand in order to grow in two key areas: accelerating international expansion with a focus on Germany, France, Italy, Austria, and the UK, and extend our fully managed authentication platform with new features. 

You won Venture Kick in 2017. How did it help you lay the foundation for your growth and today's achievement?
It was a great program that helped us to connect with the right people and be inspired by interesting business models and strategies.

You also participated in Venture Leaders Fintech in 2017 and were selected on the TOP 100 Swiss Startup Award from 2018 to 2020. How did it leverage your fundraising strategy? 
We benefit from a great entrepreneur peer network, that helped us a lot and are super useful for all kind of open questions or challenges that our company faces.