TeleSign Raises $40 Million to Expand ‘Mobile Identity’ Platform

TeleSign, a provider of phone-based authentication and fraud detection solutions, today announced that it has closed a $40 million Series B round of funding.

According to the company, the funding will be invested into its global growth strategy, as well as financing an aggressive hiring strategy for the company’s product development and engineering teams.

Los Angeles, California-based TeleSign offers what it calls a ‘Mobile Identity’ platform that verifies users by associating a valid mobile phone number with a user account.

Customers use TeleSign to “maintain the integrity of their ecosystems by detecting suspicious users before account creation and protecting their existing users from account compromise,” the company explained.

“Our goal is to make the Internet a safer place by protecting digital businesses and users from fraud,” said TeleSign CEO, Steve Jillings. “TeleSign is already successful and profitable. We’ve grown from 12 to more than 200 employees and doubled revenue every year for the last 4 years and we expect that growth to continue. This capital gives us additional resources to expand quickly and strategically into new markets, innovate rapidly, and move toward our goal of a public offering.”

TeleSign says its technology currently protects more than 3.5 billion accounts in more than 200 countries, and count nine of the top 10 US web properties and 19 of the top 25 globally as customers.

The funding round was led by Adams Street Partners with participation from March Capital Partners and existing investor, Summit Partners.

“Companies are clamoring for robust yet simple-to-use security solutions that can serve a global user base. TeleSign’s Mobile Identity platform has already proven to be core to the identity and security strategies of the largest web properties,” said Robin Murray, Partner, Adams Street Partners. “TeleSign’s client roster, track record, and innovative product roadmap made it an obvious choice for us and we are pleased to be able to lead this investment.”