In 2022, our previous coverage of Anonybit introduced the New York and Tel Aviv-based biometric security startup. At that time, they had recently emerged from stealth mode with a funding round of $3.5 million, promising to provide advanced security for enterprises’ employee biometric data. Their approach involved breaking this data into anonymized fragments and distributing them through a peer-to-peer network.
This innovative method was designed to thwart hackers from pilfering employee credentials and biometric information from centralized repositories, commonly referred to as “honeypots.” These ill-gotten data could then be used to impersonate legitimate employees, enabling unauthorized access to a company’s systems and sensitive information.
Fast forward to today, Anonybit is delighted to announce an additional funding round of $3 million, extending their seed funding and bringing their total capital raised to $8 million. This latest round was spearheaded by JAM FINTOP and included participation from Connecticut Innovations. Anonybit intends to allocate these funds to further develop their flagship system for securing and anonymizing identity information, now named Anonybit Genie.
Alarming headlines spur increased interest
Frances Zelazny, the Co-Founder and CEO of Anonybit, expressed concerns about the rapid rise of fraud in today’s world, emphasizing that existing solutions are merely temporary fixes. She pointed out that the root causes of this issue revolve around two key factors: the vulnerable central storage of personal data and the ongoing use of this data for authentication. Zelazny proposed that this vicious cycle could only be broken by Anonybit, a company that offers a solution to securely store biometric information.
Before his role at Anonybit, Zelazny served in the 8200 unit of the Israel Defense Force and contributed to BioCatch and Tapingo, both later acquired by Grubhub. Anonybit leverages Zelazny’s expertise in biometrics and payments, introducing the “Decentralized Biometrics Cloud” and the Anonybit Genie system for passwordless employee authentication, built on this cloud infrastructure, along with a decentralized data vault.
The Decentralized Biometrics Cloud relies on multi-party computing and zero-knowledge proofs, as described on the company’s website. Meanwhile, the Anonybit Genie system facilitates authentication by verifying anonymized bits’ security credentials without reassembling the complete data. It also supports the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) standard.
Anonybit’s approach ensures that authentication responses are generated across various devices and applications without revealing the original biometric data components, as stated by the company. Additionally, the decentralized data vault allows enterprises to securely store non-biometric, yet sensitive, data within an anonymized layer that operates on top of the cloud infrastructure.
Anonybit takes its commitment to security seriously, ensuring that all its tools meet SOC 2 Type II compliance standards, and the company is also ISO 27001 certified.
New appointments
Anonybit has recently made significant strides in bolstering its leadership team. Limor Elbaz, formerly a sales leader at Imperva and Peerlyst, now holds the position of Chief Revenue Officer. Additionally, the company has welcomed Al Pascual, an industry analyst at Javelin Research and co-founder of Breach Clarity, to its advisory board.
With newfound financial support and a strong dedication to advancing security through data anonymization and decentralization, Anonybit is well-positioned to sustain its growth and expand its presence in the dynamic realm of enterprise software security.