Keyless, a London-based startup focused on privacy-preserving biometric authentication, has raised €1.9 million in a selective funding round in order to tackle injection attacks used in advanced deepfakes and accelerate North American expansion.
The funding round was led by existing investors Rialto Ventures and Experian Ventures. This investment brings its total funding to €9.5 million in the past 18 months and will support Keyless’ plans for continued growth in 2025.
“2024 was a transformational year for both Keyless and the broader industry,” said Andrea Carmignani, Co-founder and CEO of Keyless. “The biometric identity market for financial services is expected to grow at a remarkable CAGR of 41% over the next three years, reaching $40 billion globally. At Keyless, we have already seen a significant shift in the adoption of privacy-preserving biometrics that can reduce fraud whilst improving the user experience at the same time. We’re looking forward to what 2025 will bring.”
Co-founded in 2019 by Andrea Carmignani Fabian Eberle, Paolo Gasti, and
Giuseppe Ateniense, Keyless is innovating in privacy-preserving biometric authentication, trusted by banks, fintechs, crypto platforms, and gaming companies to reduce account takeovers, secure high-risk actions, and improve operational efficiency.
Available via app and web, its Zero-Knowledge Biometrics™ technology delivers multi-factor authentication in one glance in 300 milliseconds without storing biometric data anywhere. Keyless supports over 1,000 different devices and has a total of 50 employees across multiple offices in the UK, US, and EU.
According to their website, Keyless is 3x faster than traditional biometric MFA, its use results in 73% reduction in Account Takeover (ATO) fraud and 81% reduction in help desk costs, and promises a 454% ROI.
In 2024 the company experienced rapid growth with new customers in the UK, EU, and North and South America. The company serves multinational customers across the banking, fintech, crypto, and gaming sectors. Keyless also increased its presence in the US, welcoming industry experts Sarah Clark and Charles Walton, both former SVPs at MasterCard, as advisors, and hiring North American Sales and Technical Services Directors.
Looking ahead, the new funding will help Keyless accelerate its North American expansion, attract more customers, and introduce breakthrough innovations. These include enhancing its privacy-preserving solutions further for upcoming projects, such as tackling injection attacks used in advanced deepfakes.
New features are also in development to push the boundaries of biometric authentication, with further announcements expected later in the year.
Read the orginal article: https://www.eu-startups.com/2025/01/authentication-in-one-glance-keyless-raises-e1-9-million-to-tackle-deepfakes/
