A Group Of High-Profile Investors Is Making A $3 Million Bet On A Startup That's Trying To Kill Passwords
Sep 8, 2014, 22:51 IST
Bala Sivakumar/FlickrAre your passwords secure enough?If there's anything good that came out of last week's iCloud leak, it's that more people are aware of two-factor authentication now.
Authy, a one-stop app for all of your two-factor authentication PINs, is one of the newcomers to this space.
In just two years, Authy has added about a million users and some big enterprise clients like Twitch, Coinbase, and Cloudflare. Over 4,000 applications are integrated with Authy's platform, including Gmail, Facebook, and Dropbox.
On Monday, Authy announced a new series A funding worth $3 million. It has a pretty impressive list of high-profile investors, including Box CEO Aaron Levie, Salesforce.com, Winklevoss Capital, and Y-Combinator.
"Passwords by itself are weak. They're not sufficiently secured for the things we do today," Marc Boroditsky, president of Authy, told Business Insider. "With Authy, you'll have a single way to authenticate yourself to all the different apps that you're using."
The way Authy works is pretty straightforward. Once you set it up to work with your individual accounts, like Facebook or Dropbox, you can easily look up your two-factor PINs when you log in on the Authy app, without having to wait for a text message or open a new app to receive it.
The PINs are automatically deleted after 20 seconds, and gets regenerated every time you log in. Coinbase, for example, requires a new authentication PIN for every new transaction, so Authy's quick access to your PIN makes the whole process a lot easier.
There are several competitors in this space, including Google Authenticator and Duo Security. But Boroditsky claims Authy is a better option because of its cross-device nature and simple integration process. Coinbase, in fact, states on its website that Authy "provides the best level of security."