the bank when you registered, and they would call you on your phone to verify that it really is you trying to log in or make that money transaction.”
Staker declined to disclose how much the buyers paid to acquire the technology and other assets from Vidoop, which was founded in 2006, and which Staker says was an insolvent business that had raised between $5 million and $10 million from its private investors.
The company has only four employees and four contractors, who are mostly software developers from Vidoop. In restarting the business, Staker recruited two other Websense expatriates: executive vice president William Goldbach, who is overseeing sales, marketing, and business development; and Roman Yudkin, the chief technology officer. “I wanted to incubate things for a while,” Staker says. “We rebranded and renamed the company, along with the recasting of websites, names, and terminology.”
Staker says the company is initially targeting financial institutions that provide online banking and investment management services. “They’re the logical choice to have them embed our technology in their system,” he says, noting that 40 percent of the population doesn’t bank online, yet a banking transaction that costs $26 to conduct in person costs just 6 cents online. Confident Technologies also is targeting e-commerce websites, healthcare organizations, social networking sites, and Web developers.
Staker says funding for Confident Technologies has come primarily from a $3.5 million bridge loan, which appears to be sufficient to get the company up and running. “If we do an A round [of venture funding],” he says, “It will be for a really good reason.”
