Top corporations in the credit card, technology and telecommunications industries have invested no less than $30 million in SecureKey Technologies Inc., a Toronto-based firm that provides platform-as-a-service tools for authentication, payment and identity.
SecureKey allows consumers and businesses to use real-world payment and identity credentials with their computers and mobile phones to enhance online security and payments.
The capital infusion from Intel Capital, Intel Corp’s global investment organization; Discover Financial Services; MasterCard; Visa International; and Canadian cellular network providers Rogers Communications and Telus Communications Co., will allow SecureKey to expand its development of convenient and secure touch-to-pay instant checkout and strong mutual authentication.
“We are thrilled to have attracted a team of world-class strategic investors who believe in our solutions and technology,” said Greg Wolfond, CEO of SecureKey. “Our collaboration efforts are an important part of being able to expand into a wide variety of devices, applications, and markets.”
Recently SecureKey worked with Intel and MasterCard to embed PayPass technology onto Intel IPT devices including Intel’s recently launched Ultrabooks. SecureKey will also be deploying its solutions in Intel Identity Protection Technology (IPT) beginning on Ultrabook devices later in 2012.
“The serious risks of privacy violations, fraud and financial theft have significantly increased as more services requiring secure transactions are offered online,” said David Flanagan, managing director, Intel Capital.
“SecureKey’s next-generation authentication solutions address these risks by enhancing the security and convenience of m- and e-commerce, thereby helping to provide secure access to critical services such as online banking, e-health and e-government,” he said.
By embedding its technology in a variety of device platforms, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, SecureKey can enable ‘tap/click to pay’ and ‘tap/click to authenticate’ capabilities, and provide secure proxies to stored credentials in device or cloud-based digital wallets. SecureKey recently launched a new authentication service for the Government of Canada that allows Canadians to use their bank authentication credentials to obtain access to online government services.