From left: Jayne Brady, partner, Kernel Capital; Alan Foreman, CEO, B-Secur; Colin Anderson, chair, B-Secur; and Andrew Sloane, investment lead, Accelerated Digital Ventures. Image: Brian Morrison
B-Secur funding will help the start-up remain at the heart of identity authentication.
Belfast-based electrocardiogram (ECG) authentication company B-Secur has raised £3.5m in funding.
The investment comprises £1.5m from Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and £750,000 from the Bank of Ireland Kernel Capital Growth Fund (NI), with the remainder provided by private investors.
‘B-Secur’s technology harnesses the unique power of the human heartbeat to unlock everything from finance to healthcare, from cars to buildings’
– MICHAEL DIMELOW
B-Secur, a previous Siliconrepublic.com Start-up of the Week, uses an individual’s unique heartbeat pattern to authenticate identity.
B-Secur at heart of major change in biometric security
The company is focused on the global ECG biometrics market, which is expected to be worth $2bn by 2021.
It is currently working in the UK, Ireland and US to respond to customers across many sectors including automotive, financial services, access control, smart cities and buildings, and healthcare, with the semiconductor industry at the core of its technology development process.
“This announcement underscores the growing demand from organisations to provide better security to their customers in this digital world, amid an escalation in high-profile cyberattacks,” said Alan Foreman, CEO of B-Secur.
“I believe that our ECG authentication technology is crucial to supporting this global challenge.
The Belfast-headquartered company has a strong partnership with Queen’s University Belfast’s CSIT department.
Michael Dimelow, head of investment at ADV, said: “In a world where security and personal identity are central to accessing a range of online digital services, B-Secur’s technology harnesses the unique power of the human heartbeat to unlock everything from finance to healthcare, from cars to buildings.
“ADV is excited to be supporting B-Secur as they deploy their market-leading patented software across all forms of devices, including mobile and wearables.”
