Featurespace, a Cambridge, U.K. based adaptive behavioral analytics company that handles fraud detection and risk management, has raised £25 million in funding led by Insight Venture Partners and MissionOG. Existing investors IP Group plc, Highland Europe, TTV Capital, Robert Sansom, and Invoke Capital also participated in this round.
With this funding round, Featurespace is going to expand internationally and continue the development of the company’s software capabilities. And the investment will also support the continued distribution of Featurespace’s ARIC platform — which uses Adaptive Behavioral Analytics for detecting anomalies in individual behavior for fraud and risk management.
Featurespace CEO Martina King said that the company has made “tremendous progress over the last 15 months” since the company last raised funding. And this is Featurespace’s largest fundraising to date. “Working very closely with our customers, we have developed a market-leading product to meet their fraud detection and prevention requirements. We have also significantly strengthened our senior management team and operational infrastructure, and opened an office in Atlanta, Georgia,” said King. “We have also grown our financial services customer base and now are working with 17 banks across continental Europe, the U.K., U.S. and Latin America. Equally important, we have become the technology partner of choice to a number of payment processors and merchant acquirers that have embedded our real-time fraud prevention technology in their anti-fraud solutions.”
Featurespace’s ARIC platform combines adaptive behavioral analytics and anomaly detection to automatically catch new attacks as they happen and identify risk. The ARIC platform uses real-time AI machine learning software that risk scores transactions and other events in more than 180 countries.
“We have been following Featurespace’s growth for over two years. Following extensive customer and product due diligence, we were delighted with market feedback around the product and team. We welcome Featurespace into our portfolio and look forward to helping the company drive international growth,” added Insight Venture Partners co-founder and managing director Jeff Horing.
Launched out of Cambridge University’s Engineering Department, Featurespace was co-founded by world-renowned experts in applied statistics, the late Professor Bill Fitzgerald and Featurespace CTO Dave Excell.
“Martina King, David Excell and team have built a dynamic culture that has led to a well-defined and successful market focus. Their efforts are evidenced by strong sales momentum with notable clients in various segments, including multinational banks, payments companies, issuer processors and merchant acquirers,” explained MissionOG chairman and managing partner Gene Lockhart.
