Cybersecurity start-up nets £350,000 cash injection

A firm founded in Edinburgh that hopes to reinvent online security has raised £350,000 to develop its technology.

AimBrain investor Episode1 said the 'password-centric model of security is dead'

AimBrain, set up last year, has developed a “biometric security” system that detects how people interact with their mobile devices and learns their behaviour to create a unique “signature” through factors such as touch pressure and typing speed.

Founders Andrius Sutas and Alesis Novik met while studying computer science at the University of Edinburgh University and are now based at the Cyber London incubator space.

Sutas, the company’s chief executive, said: “We are working towards building the market-leading mobile biometric authentication platform. So far the response has been overwhelming – we are in active discussions with many large financial institutions and name brand enterprise security players.

“In particular, we have just successfully concluded a pilot for a major UK high street bank – where actual results significantly exceeded pre-pilot targets. Our goal is to disrupt the biometrics field and make multiple biometric modalities extremely easy to integrate by anyone.”

AimBrain secured the seed funding from Episode1 Ventures, a software-only venture capital firm that invests between £250,000 and £1 million in early-stage firms that are generating revenues.

Episode1 Ventures partner Paul McNabb said: “The password-centric model of security is dead.

“People cannot remember passwords and get confused or discouraged by complex multi-step sign on processes. The end result is often lost commercial opportunity, consumer frustration, fraud, and poor protection for banks and other service providers. AimBrain’s vision of multi-modal biometrics is not only many times more secure, but offers a much easier and more reassuring user experience.”