Hypr raises $35M to grow its passwordless authentication platform

Hypr, a cloud multifactor authentication platform, today announced it has raised $35 million in a series C round led by Advent International, doubling the company’s total funding to over $72 million. Hypr says it will leverage the funds to bolster its go-to-market strategy and grow its support organization globally.

According to a recent study, passwordless authentication — which Hypr provides — is seeing heightened interest among enterprises. A survey of executives commissioned by LogMeIn’s LastPass found that 92% believe passwordless authentication is the future of their organization. That’s perhaps because users prefer it. The Ponemon Institute reports that 57% of users would would choose a passwordless method of protecting their identity if given the choice. But the rise of passwordless authentication is also likely attributable to an increased understanding of the risks associated with passwords. It’s estimated that 51% of people use the same passwords for both work and personal accounts and that 53% have a password that’s easy enough to memorize.

Hypr offers a platform that’s powered by “open standards,” the company claims, with a “mobile-first” and public-key cryptography-based login experience for workstations. Using a branded smartphone app, customers can deploy a passwordless solution to users whether they’re online or not. Once an employee registers their smartphone, they gain access to their PCs via Hypr’s desktop client for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

From Hypr’s web dashboard, admins can manage, provision, and deploy passwordless authentication policies across upwards of millions of users. The platform integrates with existing online fraud detection and risk engines, offering plugins and extensions for third-party identity and single sign-on providers, including Azure AD, Okta, and ForgeRock. And with an SDK, companies can integrate Hypr’s login flow with existing mobile and web apps.

Passwordless momentum

Hypr CEO George Avetisov notes that an estimated 300 billion passwords are used worldwide. This being the case, passwords remain the top cause of cybersecurity breaches — over 80% of which are due to compromised credentials. The pandemic and a swift transition to work-from-home arrangements expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals, highlighting the security risk, high costs, and user friction caused by passwords and password-based multifactor authentication.

“It’s 2021 and passwords are still the top cause of breaches. And despite millions of dollars invested in multi-factor authentication (MFA), the whole world still relies on passwords,” Avetisov told VentureBeat via email. “As if the password problem wasn’t loud enough, the pandemic has turned the volume up to an 11. Businesses of all sizes have been dealing with credential reuse, fraud, phishing, and MFA bypass attacks at a scale never seen before. Just last year, the number of remote login attacks jumped more than 700%. Passwordless MFA is a new way to solve this problem that combines the security of strong encryption with the speed and convenience of the smartphone that users love.”

Since announcing its previous funding round in October 2019, Hypr says its annual recurring revenue grew by more than 300%, driven by the doubling of the company’s customer base to brands including Norwegian Airlines, Point72, Rakuten, Otis Worldwide, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, CVS Health, Fiserv, and City National Bank. To date, Hypr has sold more than 100 million licenses, and it now serves organizations with up to “millions” of customers in more than 20 verticals, primarily financial services, energy, automotive, health care, education, and government.

Hypr is headquartered in New York City, with teams in California, as well as Boston, London, and Tokyo.

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