Averon, developer of Direct Autonomous Authentication (DAA), the first mobile identity verification standard that is both automatically frictionless and ultra-secure, today revealed it has closed an $8.3 million Series A financing round led by Avalon Ventures. The financing will accelerate Averon's rollout strategy in its mission to secure mobile life across the entire digital world, including banking and ecommerce, fraud prevention, smart vehicles and homes, blockchain and IoT devices.

Developed in stealth for nearly two years, Averon's security solution, called Direct Autonomous Authentication (DAA), is live today on all U.S. mobile phone networks. Averon leverages real-time mobile network signaling and the SIM/eSIM (eUICC) chips already found in the world's 7 billion smartphones, requiring no installation, no apps, and no user involvement whatsoever. Working seamlessly in the background, it is the easiest, fastest and most secure way to provide instant, frictionless authentication.

"As we see in the news every day, cybersecurity breaches continue to grow in size and frequency, and the world is in desperate need of the next generation of online identity authentication," said Wendell Brown, CEO and chairman of Averon. "Averon offers a uniquely superior solution that authenticates users while relying on zero personally identifiable data and requiring zero effort on the part of consumers - Averon is the new gold standard in cybersecurity, and we're rapidly taking it to scale."

"The internet is a dangerous place for transactions because we lack an easy way to assure the identity of the user," said technology analyst, Rob Enderle. "This is resulting in increasing data-security breaches and the growing crisis of identity theft. Averon has created a unique and powerful solution to this problem, a new universal ID layer that fundamentally changes how we approach authentication. Using technology already inside the existing mobile phones we carry, the solution is transparent to the user and an effective personal identity authenticator. Called Direct Autonomous Authentication (DAA) technology, this tool uses real-time mobile network signaling and could turn the tide on cybercrime by better protecting consumer accounts and data from bad actors. Averon's DAA has the potential to substantially reduce the exposure each of us has to the growing wave of cyber criminals."

Averon is led by a cadre of business leaders, engineers and cybersecurity experts with backgrounds spanning MIT, Harvard Business School, Stanford, USC, Cornell, the NSA, the Israel Defense Force, PayPal, Microsoft, and other top universities and institutions. Averon is the creator and holder of IP protected by 15 U.S. and international patents, and was founded by Wendell Brown, an acclaimed computer scientist, entrepreneur, and inventor best known for his innovations in telecommunications and mobile security.

"The world-class team at Averon is creating the future of cybersecurity, and we look forward to seeing them realize their vision of online authenticity," said Rich Levandov, partner at Avalon Ventures. "In today's digital environment, building a trusted mobile ecosystem demands that we radically rethink security, and Averon is creating revolutionary technologies that can meet those needs of both today and tomorrow."

In conjunction with Averon's Series A funding, Avalon Ventures partners Rich Levandov and Brady Borhmann will join the company's board of directors alongside distinguished Averon executives and co-founders Wendell Brown and Lea Tarnowski.

About Averon
Averon is the developer of Direct Autonomous Authentication (DAA), the first fully automatic and ultra-secure mobile identity verification standard. Averon's DAA solution confirms user identity by leveraging real-time mobile network signaling and the SIM/eSIM chips already contained in mobile phones. DAA works seamlessly in the background, requires no installations and no consumer involvement whatsoever, and doesn't rely on any personally identifiable data. Averon solves the problem of user identity and verification across the entire digital world from banking and ecommerce, to fraud prevention with ticketing and bot commerce, and can also be used to authenticate IoT devices including connected locks on homes and vehicles. Already live on all U.S. wireless service providers, Averon makes it easy to "Be Authentic."

About Avalon Ventures
Avalon Ventures has founded and/or funded more than 120 information technology and life sciences companies. Avalon is passionate about backing talented entrepreneurs seeking to build market-leading companies. Throughout the firm's 32-year tenure, Avalon's long-standing and successful focus has been on seed and early-stage companies. All Avalon partners are seasoned entrepreneurs with experience in company formation, operations, and value creation in tech and life sciences sectors. Avalon's current fund, launched in 2015, continues the firm's tradition of pursuing disruptive ideas in ever-changing markets.