Investors put $2.4 million into German voice recognition company
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A crippling problem comes with the rising of Internet telephony: security. Because of it, a substantive portion of companies are reluctant to embrace VoIP. Hi-tech investors already forecast this, put their dollars into companies that could provide VoIP security system. Sipera, a two-year old start-up based in Texas, has raised almost $20 million two weeks ago. In Europe, it’s the same case. Voice.Trust, a German company making voice recognition system, earned $2.4 million (€2 million) to further develop consumer-oriented product and to boost its international sales.
Alarm:clock reports that the round table included investing companies Avida and Grazia Private Equity, Falk Strascheg, former founder of Technologieholding, a German VC firm, and Boris Anderer, who co-founded Brokat Technologies, a ecommerce software company.
For the record, Voice.Trust founder and CEO, Michael Kramer, stumbled on this business idea after being the victim of a hacker who stole his credit card information and used it to buy stuff over the phone.
The technology, internally developed by Raja Kuppuswamy, establishes identification by combining a password or PIN key and voice authentication. Above all, it provides more a flexible technology way than biometric systems as voice recognition only requires a phone and non of fingerprint or iris scanners, nor sophisticated face analysis software. Here how Voice.Trust describes its technology:
“The 3D diagram of two frequency analyzes to the left shows how varied the human voice is. In their complexity and dynamics, each human voice and speech patterns are unique. From approximately 200,000 possible data points, the Voice.Trust Server establishes 1200 which are especially characteristic, the analysis of which results in the user’s individual voiceprint. By comparing the current caller’s voice with the voiceprint stored on the server, the caller’s identity can be verified with the highest level of accuracy and reliability.”
According to Time Magazine, IBM took a 5% stake in the company and has been using the technology for employee verification. Microsoft and HSBC also incorporate Voice.Trust software into their systems.
The company now targets customer-centric business and online transactions. It has teamed Skype to bring voice authentication to eBay online transactions. And Amazon has solicited their expertise.
(read)
Mar 24, 2006 | By Nuno
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