MagicCube announced has raised USD2.2 million in a seed round of funding from Azure Capital, Epic Ventures, as well as Bialla Venture Partners and private investors.
MagicCube’s software-only technology secures digital transactions on any mobile device, independent of its hardware or operating system, stopping digital transaction fraud where most vulnerabilities can be found today – at the endpoint.
“Commerce is rapidly evolving and migrating to digital channels. As innovation continues to accelerate, the traditional approach of securing devices with hardware-based solutions has become impractical and costly for the entire ecosystem,” says Sam Shawki (pictured), CEO and co-founder of MagicCube. “For smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other connected devices, the best approach to secure digital transactions is to use software, which is cost-effective and can be easily updated when new threats and use cases come along.”
“Most industry efforts to secure endpoints with hardware, so far, have resulted in fragmented solutions that are extremely costly, lengthy to deploy, and not easily scalable. Moreover, because hardware is platform-specific, these solutions are controlled by the few players who manufacture or own them,” says Ryan Hemingway, director at Epic Ventures.
“MagicCube addresses these challenges with an elegant solution that allows any entity to offer consumers secured transactions on mobile devices efficiently and cost-effectively. This levelling of the playing field comes at a crucial time, when everybody is delving into the Internet of Things.”
MagicCube’s technology addresses current security challenges and helps to future-proof applications as more consumers transact with a myriad of connected devices. With this in mind, the startup has launched its Charter Partner Program, which offers participant companies early access to MagicCube’s technology and the ability to model the development of specific use cases of commercial and strategic interest. Recognising the potential of the MagicCube technology, Visa Inc. has signed up to take advantage of the software as the first participant of the Charter Partner Program.
“We see immense potential in the security solution MagicCube has created,” says Paul Weinstein, general partner at Azure Capital. “The MagicCube team has the needed industry experience to understand a very complex ecosystem, and they have identified the right opportunity to add value to it.”
Sam Shawki, CEO, and Nancy Zayed, CTO, experts in the payments and mobile industries, founded MagicCube. Zayed is a software engineer with extensive experience in mobile devices, having spent over a decade working on the OS group at Apple, among other leading positions at technology companies like Cisco Systems. Shawki has held several leadership roles in technology, telecommunication, and payment companies throughout his career, including VimpelCom, ShoreTel, Siebel, Obopay, Netscape, and most recently heading Visa’s Global Remote Payments unit.
