The credit card startup Final has secured $1m in seed funding from angel investors to further its anti-fraud model.
The company specialises in cards that give customers more options for protecting themselves against fraud, both online and offline. The chip-and-pin cards also come with access to Final’s browser plugin and web and mobile apps, which customers can use to generate a temporary card number for use with a single merchant or one-off transaction.
While the concept has been tried before by other vendors with limited success, a spate of hack attacks has brought security issues to the fore, and many card users have a renewed interest in technology that can keep their payment details safe. Final’s founders were themselves victims of a much-publicised breach at the US chain Target in 2013, which inspired them to develop a more secure alternative.
“After we were all affected by the breach and all had our credit cards turned off suddenly, we thought there has to be a better system to improve this problem,” co-founder Matt Rothstein told Techcrunch.
“If you have a traditional card that’s breached at the point-of-sale, that one, static number is usable everywhere,” he added. “If one of [Final’s unique] numbers is breached, it means that none of the other relationships will be affected.”
New investors in the project include the fintech angels Ludlow Ventures, T5 Capital Partners and Y Combinator.
Subject to meeting industry regulations, the team plans to launch a pilot programme this year.
Whitepapers
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