Online fraud prevention startup Darwinium has raised $10 million (A$15.6 million) in a Seed Round led by local VCs Blackbird and Airtree.

The US-based customer protection platform was founded by Bondi entrepreneur Alisdair Faulkner, co-founder of cybersecurity startup ThreatMetrix, which sold for more than A$1.2 billion (US$817 million) in 2018. Joining him at Darwinium is former ThreatMetrix chairman and CEO Reed Taussig, who is now chairman of the new startup.

The money — several prominent angel investors, including Naval Ravikant and Jeff Fagnan, have also contributed — is earmarked for product and customer expansion as the company launches globally in the security and fraud sector.

Faulkner said Darwinium delivers a whole new approach to customer protection by combining a company’s internal cybersecurity tools with those used to fight fraud, to provide a single window into a user’s entire digital journey. It comes at a time of growing account compromise and online fraud, powered by masses of breached credentials. He built Darwinium to unify a disjointed approach to security checks.

“The industry is seeing a wave of fraudsters taking advantage of new technology and techniques to tailor attacks against online businesses, and today many are working with point-in-time solutions that are not fit for purpose,” he said.

“In addition, these companies’ security and fraud departments operate in silos, leaving them wide open to attacks. Fraud Farms run past bone defense mechanisms and social engineering and malware render fraud solutions useless.

“Protecting your customers should be about continuously scrutinizing their digital journey and behavior, rather than a single point evaluation. It requires an integrated system that enables good collaboration between digital security and fraud through a single overview.”

Darwinium delivers risk-based travel orchestration across every digital touchpoint – web, apps and APIs. Faulkner said silos and limited approaches consistently create unnecessary friction for customers as companies seek to protect their sales process and cart abandonment.

“They often put off good customers and businesses lose billions in revenue, losses through fraud and unnecessary operational costs,” he said.

“The Darwinium platform addresses these challenges and enables online businesses to capture valuable information during their sales journey. Risk decisions can then benefit the customer and not the fraudster.”

Faulker said Darwinium is unique in its ability to build complete “signatures” for every digital interaction and for digital travel, achieving early success with customers in global travel, e-commerce, banking, payments and gaming.