PixelPin

Idea

Introduction

Quite simply, the market for PixelPin is the replacement of passwords. The use of pictures to replace passwords has many advantages. According to the study of ‘Picture Superiority Effect’ the human brain processes pictures in a different way to the way in which words are committed to memory, therefore making it easier for a human to remember visually rather than in word format. Moreover, pictures have a significant advantage over the password as they are difficult to hack, provide no language barriers and are easy to use regardless of your ability or disability.

This is a pre-emption campaign on a £1m investment by SBI Holdings and £395k from Angels. An allocation of £90k above this amount has been reserved for Seedrs investors to participate.

Intended impact

The cost of password breaches has been estimated at $200B according to Forrester Research. Being able to successfully complete transactions on the web is important for all types of communities. PixelPin provides a cost effective solution that encourages engagement on all types of devices, is language independent and accessible. Most importantly we provide a personal secure experience that does not require a users to form a difficult mathematical task like creating a good password, and it keeps their personal data private.

The 2 main concerns we see today from companies talking to us are mobile engagement and a drop off in Social Logins. Biometrics are expensive to implement, can be considered less secure and device based giving PixelPin a strong potential market in the authentication space.

W expect businesses to benefit from implementing PixelPin in 2 main ways:
1. Increased security and cost reductions from reduced fraud, phishing and account hijacking – typically 2% of turnover for eCommerce, and much higher for a bank or FinTech business.
2. Increased revenues from customer engagement - especially through mobile – driven by a smoother, more secure customer experience that leverages the “visual web” trend of popularity of photos and results in fewer failed transactions.
PixelPin charges a monthly subscription fee to businesses. PixelPin is always free to the end-users.

Substantial accomplishments to date

PixelPin has developed from a UK company to a global one and at the end of 2018 we took a £1M investment from Strategic Business Innovator (SBI) in Japan as a Seed B investment. Some of our key achievements are:

- Commercial partnerships with KPMG in Taiwan, Fujitsu in Japan, Blue Media in Poland have been put in place.
- Our biggest customer is a leading ticketing company in Taiwan. Fujitsu Japan have integrated us into their FIDO authentication suite which is being taken to financial institutions in Japan.
- We have also completed successful user trials with Lloyds Bank and Red Link in Argentina.
- A PixelPin office was opened in Tokyo in January 2019.
- The PixelPin name is now registered in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, US & EU.
- PixelPin was a finalist at the Europas in 2018, selected as an Export Champion by the Department of Trade and Industry, selected for the FinTech Power 50 and have recently been selected by PwC into their Scale Up Programme.

The team is currently scaling to respond to new opportunities.

Monetisation strategy

PixelPin charges using a monthly subscription or transactional pricing, giving businesses increased engagement with its users, in a more secure way.

PixelPin is sold in 3 price bands dependent upon the number of users, with add-ons for a login metrics package and with the new design a branding package. Part of the market validation has been to verify the price bands. The medium and small companies are be able to self sign up and integrate PixelPin without any PixelPin supplied support. The enterprise companies sometimes request professional services to help contextualise PixelPin within their own online presence. There is also a freemium band for small companies, who are then able to buy additional packages.

There are also native mobile SDKs (iOS and Android) available for mobile authentication and FIDO certified iOS and Android for FIDO based solutions.

Use of proceeds

The proceeds will be primarily used to strengthen the commercial activities of the team. We have recruited an experienced cyber security sales person, and intend to invest in an account manager as the business develops. The sales organisation will comprise lead generation from events and in-bound marketing campaigns, and experienced sales people to close opportunities.

The company has opened an office in Tokyo and will be driving business development and sales activities in the region from there.

We continue to develop the product to meet new customer demands and we will be investing in machine learning to improve our detection of fraud and bots, and modern architectural techniques such as micro services to provide simple and flexible integration into new services.

Round details

The lead investor in this round (SBI), representing £1,000,007.48, will receive 1x non participating preference shares, while investors through Seedrs will receive Ordinary shares, which are EIS eligible.

This means that Seedrs shareholders will only share in the proceeds of an exit of the company if such proceeds exceed £1m.