Passwordless multifactor authentication startup Beyond Identity Inc. today announced $100 million in new funding to expand research and development and to extend the company’s footprint and resources into the Asia Pacific region and Latin America.

Evolution Equity Partners led the Series C round with New Enterprise Associates, Jim Clark, Potentum Partners, Expanding Capital and HBAM also participating. Onetime Netscape Communications Corp. co-founder Clark, who also founded Silicon Graphics Inc., has long worked with Beyond co-founder and Chief Executive Tom “TJ” Jermoluk, who was president and chief operating officer at SGI. More recently they’ve been working together as venture capitalists at the Clark Jermoluk Founders Fund created in 2006.

The round was raised on a valuation of $1.1 billion, giving Beyond Identity unicorn status for the first time. Including the new funding, the company has raised $205 million to date.

Founded in 2020, Beyond Identity provides passwordless identity management solutions designed to secure digital business. Pitched as empowering the next generation of secure digital business by replacing passwords with secure X.509-based certificates, Beyond Identity claims it’s fundamentally changing how the world logs in with a groundbreaking invisible MFA platform.

Beyond Identity is addressing a real problem. The company notes that the root cause of 80% of all breaches is related to passwords. While not providing a reference for that figure, it’s likely right, since password compromise is a significant factor in hacking. Added to the mix is that MFA is also hackable, meaning that even when companies add MFA, it’s still a potential route of compromise.

The company differs in that it offers a state-of-the-art MFA solution that cryptographically binds a user’s identity to their devices. The system uses proven public/private key technology and X.509 certificates, completely removing passwords from the authentication and account recovery process instead of simply obscuring them.

Beyond Identity offers a platform where the core architecture combined with the company’s modern authenticator and advanced policy engine ensures that only authorized users and authorized devices are granted access. Every device using the company’s service complies with security policies before and after the authentication process.

The company has seen strong growth, particularly amid the shift to remote working caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Beyond Identity saw its annual recurring revenue up by 330% from 2020 to 2021 and its roster of customers increasing an impressive 640%, though it didn’t provide absolute numbers.

Notable customers include Snowflake Inc., Varex Imaging Corp., Kymera Therapeutics Inc., Koch Industries Inc., Roblox Corp., Cloud Plus and Paya Holding Inc.

“As an industry, we are coming dangerously close to being complicit in cybercrime,” Jermoluk said in a statement. “Truckloads of VC and PE money for legacy authentication technology will not protect companies.”

Jermoluk did not hold back, adding that “by throwing money at security ‘controls’ that criminals consistently evade, in an attempt to inexplicably protect and preserve the gaping hole that is passwords, is not only funding failure, it’s knowingly failing companies and customers.”

Image: Beyond Identity