An Austin, Texas company offering a simple way to add biometric authentication to web applications has emerged from stealth and announced it has raised a $4 million seed round of funding. Reminiscent of Stripe, which enabled websites to accept card payments in a simple way, Passage says it allows e-commerce or banking websites “with only a few lines of code” to link to users’ mobile devices to identify themselves using biometric capabilities built into them (e.g., FaceID on iPhones).
While consumers are increasingly comfortable using biometrics like fingerprints or facial recognition to identify themselves during mobile transactions, it isn’t as easy on a traditional website, where much e-commerce still takes place.
"After decades of passwords and multifactor requirements, there is a light at the end of the tunnel,” said Passage CTO and Co-Founder Anna Pobletts. “We are excited to lead the way for developers wanting to implement better authentication for their users."
The funding round was led by LiveOak Venture Partners with participation from Next Coast Ventures, Tau Ventures, Secure Octane and other angel investors. The company has made its beta publicly available.
