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Today TeleSign, a nine-year-old company that creates mobile phone-based verification tools for online accounts, announced Australian telecom giant Telstra as its newest investor. Telstra is leading TeleSign’s $49 million round and is also now using TeleSign’s authentication technology as part of its own services.
Not only does this investment give TeleSign an optimal partnership, it positions the Marina Del Rey-based company to take the offensive in a market crowded by other authentication and verification services (like Apple’s touch identification feature). TeleSign plans to compete by making two to three acquisitions over the next year, CEO Steve Jillings said.
These acquisitions will include companies that offer capabilities in biometric or frictionless tech. Jillings said he is not limiting the types or styles of tech he is looking for, as long as the company has “brilliant technical capabilities that complement what we already have and innovative technical ideas that can change a category.”
As TeleSign makes these strategic acquisitions, it is working towards its ultimate goal of leading the “next wave of authentication” in the US and internationally. Currently, 80 percent of TeleSign’s users are based in the US, but the company is soon rolling out services to telecommunications companies in the U.K.
“We are already market leading on our current categories,” Jillings said. “We want to be the undisputed market leader in verification and authentication with technology that functions in the background that does not impede the ability of high quality users to transact online.”
