Sells banks, insurers and healthcare payers cloud software that scores every phone call for fraud risk, authenticates callers passively from voice, device and network signals, and detects synthetic voices and AI agents, sold directly, through contact-center platforms (NiCE, Zoom), AWS Marketplace and FICO Marketplace.
What is Pindrop, and which banks use it?
Pindrop, founded 2011 in Atlanta, is a private, venture-backed vendor of phone-channel fraud scoring (Protect), passive caller authentication (Passport) and voice deepfake detection (Pulse). It says it passed $100 million ARR in April 2025 and is used by 14 of the top 20 US banks. Among our 100 banks, Pindrop names FNBO and M&T Bank as customers; it also names Optum Financial, the UnitedHealth unit above Optum Bank, which is not the bank itself. Pindrop.com publishes no prices; its AWS Marketplace listing shows contract prices from $50,000.
Category
Founded
2011
Headquarters
Atlanta, Georgia, US
Ownership
Private and venture-backed: a $75 million Series C led by Google Capital (now CapitalG) in 2016 took equity raised to $122 million, and a $90 million Series D led by Vitruvian Partners followed in December 2018 (with Goldman Sachs, EDBI and existing backers Andreessen Horowitz, GV, IVP and Citi Ventures); in July 2024 Pindrop added $100 million of debt financing from Hercules Capital. No valuation is published.[6][7][9]
Deployment
SaaS (cloud), integrated with contact-center platforms such as NiCE CXone and Zoom Contact Center; also sold through AWS Marketplace and FICO Marketplace
Pricing
12-month contract licences per product sized by call volume (up to 1,000,000 calls per unit) or by meeting users, with per-unit charges for additional usage; custom and private offers through sales
Banks among the 100
2
- Founded in 2011 in Atlanta by Vijay Balasubramaniyan (CEO), Paul Judge (executive chairman) and Mustaque Ahamad (chief scientist); Balasubramaniyan and Judge hold Georgia Tech computer-science PhDs and Ahamad has taught cybersecurity at Georgia Tech for over four decades.
- Pindrop said in April 2025 that it had surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue; in September 2026 it described itself as trusted by 14 of the top 20 US banks, five of the top seven insurers and three of the largest healthcare providers (vendor-reported).
- Funding: $122 million of equity through a 2016 Series C led by Google Capital, a $90 million Series D led by Vitruvian Partners in December 2018, and $100 million of debt from Hercules Capital in July 2024; no valuation has been published.
- Product line has moved from phone fraud and authentication (Protect, Passport) to deepfake detection: Pulse for contact centers (February 2024), Pulse Inspect for media files (preview, August 2024), Pulse for Meetings (general availability November 2025) and BotStopper for AI voice agents (September 2026).
- Pindrop's own releases and customer stories name First National Bank of Omaha (Protect, Passport, Pulse beta and Fraud Assist), M&T Bank (switched its call-center authentication to Pindrop) and UnitedHealth Group's Optum Financial (Pulse) as customers.
- In August 2026 the Third Circuit affirmed dismissal of an Illinois biometric-privacy (BIPA) suit over voiceprints used to authenticate John Hancock callers, holding that Pindrop qualifies as a 'financial institution' under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act definition BIPA incorporates.
- Pricing is not published on pindrop.com; Pindrop's AWS Marketplace listing shows contract prices of $50,000 to $300,000 per product for up to 1,000,000 calls and $54,000 for Pulse for Meetings for up to 100 users.
What does Pindrop sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Pindrop Protect[2][17] | Real-time call risk scoring at the IVR and live agent from voice, device, behavior and spoofing signals, with past calls rescored as new fraud is confirmed; also sold through FICO Marketplace since May 2026. | Generally available |
| Pindrop Passport[3][20] | Passive multifactor caller authentication using device, behavior, network, risk and voice signals, intended to replace knowledge-based questions and one-time passwords in the call center. | Generally available |
| Pindrop Pulse (for contact centers)[8][19] | Audio liveness and deepfake detection launched February 20, 2024, which Pindrop says flags synthetic voices from about two seconds of speech; FNBO used it in beta before launch. | Generally available |
| Pindrop Pulse Inspect[10] | API-driven batch-processing tool with a user interface for detecting AI-generated speech in recorded audio files, aimed at media, nonprofits and government; launched in preview on August 15, 2024. | Beta |
| Pindrop Pulse for Meetings[13][19] | Deepfake and impostor detection for Zoom, Webex and Microsoft Teams meetings, generally available from November 19, 2025, with hiring-platform integrations and screen-share video analysis added in September 2026. | Generally available |
| Pindrop Protect Fraud Assist[16][4] | Generative-AI add-on to Protect, announced March 17, 2026, that summarizes and translates calls, surfaces risk insights and drafts case documentation for fraud analysts. | Generally available |
| Pindrop BotStopper[19] | Standalone detection of AI voice agents and automated callers, launched September 16, 2026, backed by an AI Voice Consortium registry of more than 5,000 AI voices; included at no extra cost for existing Pulse for Call Center customers. | Generally available |
| Pindrop VeriCall[20] | Phone-number (ANI) authentication and spoof detection for the IVR, including STIR/SHAKEN ingestion; described on Pindrop's AWS Marketplace listing, which prices a separate 'Call Verification' licence. | Generally available |
How much does Pindrop cost?
How it is charged: 12-month contract licences per product sized by call volume (up to 1,000,000 calls per unit) or by meeting users, with per-unit charges for additional usage; custom and private offers through sales.
| Product | Plan | List price | Unit | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Anti Fraud[20] | $250,000 | per 12-month contract, licence for up to 1,000,000 calls; additional usage $0.30 per unit | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Caller Authentication[20] | $250,000 | per 12-month contract, licence for up to 1,000,000 calls; additional usage $0.30 per unit | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Anti Fraud and Deepfake Detection[20] | $300,000 | per 12-month contract, licence for up to 1,000,000 calls | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Caller Authentication and Deepfake Detection[20] | $300,000 | per 12-month contract, licence for up to 1,000,000 calls | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Call Verification[20] | $50,000 | per 12-month contract, licence for up to 1,000,000 calls; additional usage $0.10 per unit | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Pulse For Meetings[20] | $54,000 | per 12-month contract for up to 100 users; overage $45.00 per unit | Sep 24, 2026 |
| Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform, Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing | Pindrop Pulse Deepfake (additional usage)[20] | $0.10 | per unit, billed on usage outside the contract | Sep 24, 2026 |
Pricing is not published on pindrop.com, which directs buyers to request a demo. The prices above are from Pindrop's own AWS Marketplace listing, where Pindrop Security, Inc. is the seller (retrieved 2026-09-24); the listing directs custom pricing to private offers, and bank contracts are usually negotiated privately, so these list prices may not reflect what a bank pays.
Which banks use Pindrop?
| Bank | What | Status |
|---|---|---|
| First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) | Contact-center fraud detection and passive authentication (Pindrop Protect and Passport) for more than five years, Pulse deepfake detection (beta user before the February 2024 launch) and Fraud Assist for fraud-case investigations (one of its first customers, March 2026).[16][3][4][8] | In production |
| M&T Bank | Call-center authentication and fraud detection; Pindrop describes M&T as a customer that switched from its existing authentication solution to Pindrop technologies.[5] | In production |
Among the 100 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, Pindrop or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is Pindrop Identity Trust Platform (Protect, Passport, Pulse)?
Pindrop Protect scores call risk in real time at the IVR and the agent, Pindrop Passport authenticates callers passively, and Pindrop Pulse detects synthetic and deepfake voices in about two seconds; all draw on the Pindrop Intelligence Network, which Pindrop says is built from more than 8 billion analyzed interactions.[2][19][3]
What has Pindrop done, and when?
- Sep 16, 2026
Launches BotStopper for AI voice agents[19]
Standalone detection of AI agents and automated callers with an AI Voice Consortium registry of more than 5,000 AI voices; Optum Financial quoted as a Pulse user.
- Aug 19, 2026
Third Circuit affirms dismissal of BIPA voiceprint suit[18]
The court held Pindrop is a 'financial institution' under the GLBA definition incorporated in Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act, exempting it from BIPA claims over John Hancock caller authentication.
- May 21, 2026
Pindrop Protect joins FICO Marketplace[17]
Financial institutions on FICO Platform can pull Pindrop's interaction-risk, ANI-validation and account-risk scores into fraud decisioning for account opening, wires and card changes.
- Mar 17, 2026
Launches Fraud Assist agentic investigation tool[16]
Pindrop Protect Fraud Assist, a generative-AI case-investigation add-on; FNBO, one of its first customers, reported 35-40% faster case investigations (Pindrop-reported).
- Feb 3, 2026
NiCE becomes reseller and native integration partner[14]
Passport, Protect and Pulse integrated natively into NiCE CXone, with NiCE customers able to buy Pindrop directly through NiCE.
- Nov 19, 2025
Pulse for Meetings generally available[13]
Deepfake detection for Zoom, Webex and Microsoft Teams meetings, named one of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025.
- Apr 24, 2025
Reports more than $100 million ARR[11]
Pindrop announced it had surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
- Sep 12, 2024
M&T Bank described as a Pindrop authentication customer[5]
A Pindrop article says M&T Bank switched from its existing call-center authentication solution to Pindrop, with M&T's head of enterprise fraud policy explaining the decision in a Pindrop webinar.
- Aug 15, 2024
Pulse Inspect released in preview[10]
A tool for detecting AI-generated speech in recorded audio files, aimed at media, nonprofits, governments and social networks.
- Jul 17, 2024
$100 million debt financing from Hercules Capital[9]
Pindrop said the funds would go to audio, voice and AI technology development; it reported 5.3 billion calls analyzed and $2 billion of fraud losses prevented to date.
- Feb 20, 2024
Launches Pindrop Pulse deepfake detection[8]
Pindrop launched Pulse, audio liveness detection for contact centers, naming First National Bank of Omaha as a beta user.
- Dec 5, 2018
$90 million Series D led by Vitruvian Partners[7]
New investors included Goldman Sachs, EDBI, Allegion Ventures, Cross Creek and Dimension Data; Pindrop said 8 of the 10 largest US banks were customers.
- Jan 28, 2016
$75 million Series C led by Google Capital[6]
The round, with GV, Andreessen Horowitz, IVP, Citi Ventures and Felicis Ventures, brought total funding to $122 million; Pindrop said it protected the phone calls of three of the four largest US banks.
- Jan 1, 2011
What do banks use Pindrop for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Call-center fraud and account-takeover detection[3][2] | Real-time risk scores on every inbound call at the IVR and agent, routing high-risk calls to fraud teams before money moves. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Passive caller authentication[3][5] | Authenticating callers from voice, device and network signals instead of knowledge-based questions and one-time passcodes. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Voice deepfake and AI-bot detection[8][19] | Pulse and BotStopper flag synthetic voices and automated AI callers probing IVRs and agents. | In production | Cybersecurity |
| Agentic fraud-case investigation[16][4] | Fraud Assist summarizes and translates calls and drafts case documentation for analysts, with humans deciding the case. | In production | Generative & agentic AI |
| Phone-channel risk signals in onboarding decisions[17] | Through FICO Marketplace, phone-number and device risk from Pindrop feeds decisions on new accounts, mortgage applications and wire requests. | Announced | AML / KYC |
| Buying through contact-center platforms[14][15][20] | Banks can procure Pindrop through NiCE, Zoom Contact Center or AWS Marketplace, which adds a platform provider to the vendor chain. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
What has Pindrop disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| Annual recurring revenue (vendor-reported) | More than $100 million[11] | Apr 24, 2025 |
| US bank reach (vendor-reported) | Trusted by 14 of the top 20 US banks (a March 2026 release said 7 of the top 10)[19][16] | Sep 16, 2026 |
| Funding | $122 million equity through the 2016 Series C, a $90 million Series D (December 2018) and $100 million of debt from Hercules Capital (July 2024)[6][7][9] | Jul 17, 2024 |
| Pindrop Intelligence Network (vendor-reported) | Built from more than 8 billion analyzed interactions; 300+ patents[19] | Sep 16, 2026 |
| Protect detection and false-positive rates (vendor-reported) | Fraud detection rate of 80% with under 0.5% false positives; about $3.5 billion cumulative fraud losses prevented through December 2025 (Pindrop estimate)[17] | Dec 31, 2025 |
| FNBO Fraud Assist results (vendor-reported) | 35-40% less case investigation time, 50% higher analyst accuracy, 42% more case productivity without added headcount[16] | Mar 17, 2026 |
| Synthetic-voice attacks at banks (Pindrop research) | +149% in 2024, from analysis of 1.2 billion customer calls[12] | Dec 31, 2024 |
“Fraud Assist is helping our team handle significantly more fraud cases without additions to staff.”[16]
Steve Furlong · Director of Fraud Management, FNBO · Mar 17, 2026
“The goal is not to block AI agents. Legitimate agents are going to call enterprises on behalf of real customers and they should be welcomed.”[19]
Vijay Balasubramaniyan · CEO and Co-Founder, Pindrop · Sep 16, 2026
“Pindrop Pulse has been a tremendous benefit to both our advocates and our members.”[19]
Amy Axbom · Sr. Capability Manager, UnitedHealth Group - Optum Financial · Sep 16, 2026
Who runs Pindrop?
Which rules apply to a bank using Pindrop?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| Federal Reserve | Pindrop's call risk scores, voice authentication and deepfake classifiers are vendor machine-learning models that feed decisions on whether to authenticate a caller or block a transaction; a bank using them is expected to inventory, validate and monitor them under the revised interagency model risk guidance (SR 26-2), while Fraud Assist's generative summaries fall outside its scope. | SR 26-2 |
| OCC | Contact-center authentication is a third-party service that touches customer identity data on every call; OCC Bulletin 2023-17 sets due-diligence, contract and monitoring expectations for Pindrop and for resellers such as NiCE or AWS Marketplace in the chain, and OCC Bulletin 2026-13 covers the vendor models themselves. | OCC Bulletin 2023-17 OCC Bulletin 2026-13 |
| FinCEN | FinCEN's 2024 alert on deepfake media lists red flags for generative-AI audio used to impersonate customers and asks banks to use a specific SAR key term; Pindrop Pulse and BotStopper are bought to catch exactly those synthetic-voice calls, and their alerts can feed the bank's SAR decisions. | FIN-2024-Alert004 (Deepfake Media) |
| Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) / Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act | Pindrop analyzes callers' voices; in August 2026 the Third Circuit held Pindrop is a GLBA 'financial institution' exempt from BIPA, which means a bank's voice-authentication data handled by Pindrop falls under GLBA privacy and safeguards rules, though state biometric laws outside the Third Circuit's ruling may still need review. | |
| EU AI Act | For a bank operating in the EU, remote biometric identification and emotion recognition face restrictions under the AI Act, while biometric verification that only confirms a caller is who they claim to be is treated differently; which category Pindrop's voice authentication falls under affects the bank's obligations. | Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 |
Linked authorities have a page in the AI Regulation Tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying Pindrop?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
Pricing is not published on Pindrop's own site
pindrop.com has no pricing page; the only public figures are contract list prices on Pindrop's AWS Marketplace listing ($50,000 to $300,000 per product for up to 1,000,000 calls), and bank contracts are typically negotiated privately.
02
Bank-reach claims are unnamed and vary by release
Pindrop says it serves 14 of the top 20 US banks (September 2026) and 7 of the top 10 (March 2026), after 8 of the top 10 in 2018; apart from FNBO, M&T and Optum Financial, the banks behind these counts are not named in the sources reviewed.
03
Performance figures are Pindrop's own
The 80% detection rate, under-0.5% false positives, $3.5 billion in prevented losses and FNBO's Fraud Assist gains are reported by Pindrop, measured against customers' prior processes, and not independently audited in the sources reviewed; a June 2026 Podonos benchmark is cited by Pindrop for Pulse accuracy.
04
The biometric-privacy question has an appellate answer in one circuit
The August 2026 Third Circuit ruling exempted Pindrop from Illinois BIPA as a GLBA financial institution; it is binding precedent in that circuit, and it resolved a suit alleging Pindrop used callers' voiceprints to authenticate John Hancock calls without first obtaining consent.
05
The product line is expanding beyond the call center
Pulse for Meetings, hiring-platform integrations and BotStopper for AI agents were added in 2025-2026, alongside NiCE, Zoom and FICO distribution; banks buying for the phone channel may be offered bundles tied to three-year subscriptions, such as the Pulse Warranty.
What are the alternatives to Pindrop?
Feedzai
RiskOps platform for bank fraud, scam and AML prevention: transaction scoring, behavioral biometrics and network intelligence.
Featurespace
Real-time behavioral fraud and AML scoring for banks and processors (The Featurespace Platform, formerly ARIC Risk Hub); a Visa unit.
BioCatch
Behavioral-biometric and device intelligence that scores digital banking sessions for account takeover, scams, mules and application fraud.
Sardine
Fraud and AML platform: device and behavioral signals, transaction monitoring, sanctions screening and AI agents for alert review.
Socure
Identity verification, fraud scoring and watchlist screening for account opening and login, run on its RiskOS decisioning platform.
Alloy
Identity and fraud prevention platform: onboarding KYC/KYB, fraud and login risk scoring, AML monitoring and data orchestration.
How much does Pindrop cost?
Pindrop does not publish prices on pindrop.com. Its AWS Marketplace listing shows contract prices of $50,000 for Call Verification, $250,000 each for Anti Fraud and Caller Authentication, and $300,000 each when combined with deepfake detection, each for up to 1,000,000 calls, plus $54,000 for Pulse for Meetings for up to 100 users. Additional usage is billed per unit ($0.10 or $0.30 depending on the product), and custom pricing goes through private offers.
Which banks use Pindrop?
Among the 100 largest US banks, Pindrop names First National Bank of Omaha (Protect, Passport, Pulse and Fraud Assist), and M&T Bank (call-center authentication, per a 2024 Pindrop article). It also names Optum Financial, the UnitedHealth unit above Optum Bank, as a Pulse bot-detection user; the source does not name the bank itself. Pindrop says it serves 14 of the top 20 US banks but does not name most of them.
Who owns Pindrop?
Pindrop is a private company founded in 2011 by Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Paul Judge and Mustaque Ahamad. Its venture investors include Andreessen Horowitz, CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), GV, IVP, Citi Ventures, Felicis Ventures and Vitruvian Partners, which led a $90 million Series D in 2018, plus Goldman Sachs and EDBI. Hercules Capital provided $100 million of debt financing in July 2024. No valuation is published.
Is Pindrop a bank or a regulated financial institution?
Pindrop is not a bank. It is a software vendor to banks, insurers and healthcare organizations. In August 2026 the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that Pindrop qualifies as a 'financial institution' under the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act definition used in Illinois' biometric privacy law, because authenticating people conducting financial transactions is a financial activity, so GLBA privacy and security rules apply to it.
What is Pindrop Pulse?
Pindrop Pulse is deepfake and liveness detection for voice. Launched for contact centers in February 2024, it scores whether a caller's voice is synthetic, replayed or machine-generated; Pindrop says it needs about two seconds of speech. The family now includes Pulse Inspect for recorded files, Pulse for Meetings for Zoom, Webex and Teams, and BotStopper, which uses the same engine to detect AI voice agents.
What is Pindrop Fraud Assist?
Fraud Assist is a generative-AI add-on to Pindrop Protect, announced in March 2026, that gives fraud analysts call summaries, translations, risk insights and auto-generated case documentation. Pindrop reports that FNBO, one of its first customers, cut case investigation time by 35-40% and raised analyst accuracy by 50%; these are Pindrop's figures.
How does Pindrop compare to BioCatch?
Pindrop works on the phone and meeting channels: it scores calls for fraud risk, authenticates callers from voice, device and network signals, and detects synthetic voices and AI agents. BioCatch works on digital banking sessions, using behavioral biometrics such as typing and navigation patterns. They address different channels, and no head-to-head benchmark between them appears in the sources reviewed for this page.
- Continuous Identity Verification for Enterprises (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- Reduce Fraud with Pindrop® Protect (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- How FNBO Saved 8.5 Million Minutes in Handle Time (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- How Fraud Assist Brought AI Efficiency to FNBO's Fraud Case Investigation (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
- How M&T Bank Upgraded from a Legacy Authentication System to a Modern Cloud-Based Solution
- Pindrop Raises $75 Million Led by Google Capital to Stop Voice Fraud and Identity Theft
- Pindrop Raises $90 Million Series D to Fuel Global Expansion
- Pindrop Launches Revolutionary Audio Deepfake Detection Solution to Bring Trust Back to Remote Communication
- Pindrop Secures $100 Million Financing To Accelerate Fraud And Deepfake Detection Technologies
- Pindrop Launches Pulse Inspect: A Cutting-Edge Solution to Combat Deepfakes and the Spread of Misinformation
- Pindrop Surpasses $100 Million in Annual Recurring Revenue Amid Rising Fraud Threats Exacerbated by Increasing Deepfake Attacks
- Pindrop's 2025 Voice Intelligence & Security Report Reveals +1,300% Surge in Deepfake Fraud
- Pindrop's Pulse for Meetings Named One of TIME's Best Inventions of 2025
- Pindrop Now Powers NiCE CXone and CX AI platform with Real-Time Fraud and Deepfake Defense
- Pindrop Zoom Integration Embeds Real-Time Deepfake Detection and Identity Verification in Zoom Contact Center
- Pindrop Unveils First Agentic Fraud Investigation Solution to Combat Surging AI-Driven Fraud
- Pindrop Brings Real-Time Fraud Intelligence to FICO Marketplace as AI Scams Surge
- Third Circuit Rules It Official: Pindrop Qualifies as a Financial Institution Under the Illinois Biometric Privacy Act
- Pindrop Launches Pindrop BotStopper™ Technology to Detect AI Voice Agents for the Enterprise
- Pindrop Anti-Fraud and Authentication Platform (undated page, retrieved 2026-09-24)
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