Yahoo Finance Soho-based cyber security firm SEON raises £72m from Silicon Valley fund
A London-based fraud prevention business that works with businesses like Revolut and airline KLM has raised $94 million (£72 million) from a Silicon Valley investor.
The series B funding round for Soho-based SEON was led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital business IVP, which has also backed the $52 billion cybersecurity company Crowdstrike and cyber risk modelling business Cyence.
Michael Miao, a partner at IVP who joined the board of SEON, said the company was “making a remarkable dent in fraud prevention by making it easy for every business to adopt its data-driven solution.”
SEON uses machine learning to build a picture of a customer’s digital footprint using their email address, phone number and IP address and spot potential fraudulent or fake accounts.
Hungarian founders Tamas Kadar and Bence Jendruszak launched SEON in 2018 after becoming friends at university due to a shared love of cryptocurrencies. Crypto platforms were among the first adopters of the pair’s fraud prevention technology.
The company counts fintech business Revolut and airliner KLM among its customers. It has used its technology to review over 1 billion customer transactions and estimates that it has prevented over €50 million in fraudulent transactions.
Criminals stole over £750 million through fraud in the first half of 2021, according to a study by UK finance. Impersonation scams were among the biggest contributors to the figure, with bank scam cases rising 129% over the period.
In March, the Financial Conduct Authority called on firms to review their operational and cyber resilience, including their use of Russian-based products, amid concerns over a greater cyber security threat posed by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
