Scio Security, an Ann Arbor, MI-based developer of mobile phone transaction security systems, has received an undisclosed amount of venture capital investment from True Ventures, a Palo Alto, CA-based firm that invests in early-stage companies. Scio co-founder Jon Oberheide confirmed in an e-mail to me this morning that the investment happened this week and that the company “will be announcing the other participants in the round shortly.”
“Scio provides the simplest and safest way to secure any Internet transaction by delivering multi-factor authentication as a service,” True Ventures said in a news release announcing the investment. “They are in short disrupting an industry riddled with complex and expensive solutions.”
AnnArbor.com reports today that Scio will announce it has raised $1 million from several VC firms.
Scio Security was founded by Oberheide and Ann Arbor entrepreneur Dug Song, who was chief security architect at Arbor Networks (recently acquired by Danaher) until 2007, and has been an advisor to mobile software firm Mobiata. Scio develops software to improve security purchases from mobile devices such as smart phones.
Author: Howard Lovy
Howard Lovy is a veteran journalist who has focused primarily on technology, science and innovation during the past decade.
In 2001, he helped launch Small Times Magazine, a nanotech publication based in Ann Arbor, MI, where he built the freelance team and worked closely with writers to set the tone and style for an emerging sector that had never before been covered from a business perspective. Lovy's work at Small Times, and on one of the first nanotechnology-themed blogs, helped him earn a reputation for making complex subjects understandable, interesting, and even entertaining for a broad audience. It also earned him the 2004 Prize in Communication from the Foresight Institute, a nanotech think tank.
In his freelance work, Lovy covers nanotechnology in addition to technological innovation in Michigan with an emphasis on efforts to survive and retool in the state's post-automotive age. Lovy's work has appeared in many publications, including Wired News, Salon.com, the Wall Street Journal, The Detroit News, The Scientist, the Forbes/Wolfe Nanotech Report, Michigan Messenger, and the Ann Arbor Chronicle.
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