Minds Digital, a Brazilian idtech that develops voice biometrics solutions for identification and fraud prevention in financial and sales transactions, has secured BRL 1.5 million in a Seed round led by BR Angels.
This is the first investment raised by the startup founded by Marcelo Peixoto, Frederico de Souza, Igor Hufnagel, and Daniel Ladeira, former employees of BMG bank, which was also one of the first customers of the voice authentication solution developed by Minds.
The funds will be invested in the company’s product, commercial, and marketing areas, to bolster idtech’s position as an authority in voice biometrics. Besides, Minds has just launched three new products for companies, aimed at detecting identity fraud and suspicious behavior in users’ accounts: Minds for WhatsApp, Minds for App, and Minds for Call Center.
“We want to increase the security of transactions that can be done through WhatsApp, apps, and both human and digital customer service channels, enabling authentication and validation with voice biometrics,” explained Peixoto, idtech’s CEO.
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Minds debuted in the market in 2020, just when the pandemic accelerated the digitization of every kind of operation, and frauds, scams, and cyber-attacks rose significantly.
According to the survey Device Fraud Scan 2022, by AllowMe, in 2021 Brazil had 3.7 fraud attempts per minute between 9 am and 8 pm; the financial sector leads in the number of frauds. The study also showed that most fraud attempts (63%) occur at the moment of user identification when the user enters their login information to access their account on a website or app.
“Minds was born to support the entire national financial ecosystem and is present in any market that has financial transactions and digital onboarding. We want to help in fraud prevention, whether it’s when hiring a financial service or canceling a digital account,” Peixoto said.
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According to Carlos Raimar, BR Angels associate and Minds’ Board Advisor, the idtech portfolio goes far beyond fraud prevention. “Voice biometrics allows for increased efficiency and automation of customer recognition processes in contact centers, for example.” In 2021, Minds reported a 52% growth in its operation in authentication by voice.
The company now wants to scale the operation by focusing on user experience and platform improvements. One of the bets is the so-called liveness detection, which will be used to identify if the person’s voice has been recorded or cloned through artificial intelligence, or if it is really the person on the other side.
“We hope, in the near future, to scale our product throughout the national market and get ready for an expansion in Latin America and the US,” said Peixoto.
