LOS ALTOS, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Hawcx, a leading innovator in passwordless authentication, has secured $3 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm Engineering Capital, with participation from seed-stage fund Boldcap. The funding will fuel Hawcx’s efforts to accelerate product development, grow its team, and scale sales and marketing initiatives.

Passwords are a critical weak point in cybersecurity, contributing to over 86% of data breaches globally and frustrating users with inefficiencies. Hawcx tackles these issues head-on with its passwordless authentication platform, delivering robust security, seamless user experience, and integration in just five lines of code. Hawcx was founded in 2023 by Riya Shanmugam, Selva Kumaraswamy, and Ravi Ramaraju driven by a mission to make online security effortless and more effective. Since launching from stealth in April 2024, the company introduced a self-serve platform for faster adoption and saw rapid growth in adoption across industries.

“Having witnessed firsthand the high administrative overhead and costs of authentication for both consumers and employees at large organizations, we understand the pressing need for change. While the passwordless authentication market has largely focused on passkeys, which address security concerns, the true challenge lies in usability. The user experience with passkeys falls short of what’s needed for widespread adoption. Passwords will soon be a thing of the past, and at Hawcx, we are committed to solve this by delivering a seamless, passwordless authentication experience that not only simplifies security for users but also reduces operational overhead for organizations,” said Riya Shanmugam, co-founder and CEO of Hawcx.

“The team at Hawcx has paired a brilliant technical insight with a unique market insight. Their approach to passwordless authentication is solving one of the industry’s most pressing challenges in a uniquely scalable way,” said Ashmeet Sidana, founder and managing director at Engineering Capital. “We are thrilled to support Hawcx as they reimagine how businesses and users approach authentication, helping them lead in an emerging and essential space of cybersecurity.”

Supporting Quotes

Sathya Nellore Sampat, General Partner at Boldcap:

“By 2030, we believe the majority of workforce and customer authentication will be passwordless. The security risks and cost overhead for organizations with millions of customers or thousands of employees are overwhelming and impossible to ignore. The founders of Hawcx are relentless entrepreneurs with complementary skills building a best-in-class passwordless protocol and scaling it to millions of customers worldwide.”

Tushar Phondge, Director of Consumer Identity at ADP:

“For organizations managing millions of users, the demand for authentication solutions that balance security and user experience is more critical than ever. Yet, the current market struggles to deliver a solution that achieves this balance while operating seamlessly across platforms and devices. Hawcx’s innovative approach is driving a new era in identity management—where robust security and effortless, cross-platform user experiences coexist seamlessly. This is the kind of breakthrough the industry has long awaited.”

About Hawcx

Hawcx is a passwordless authentication company that revolutionizes identity security with its innovative, frictionless user experience and effortless integration process. By adding just five lines of code, developers can transform the login experience for their end users to support passwordless authentication across platforms and devices. Hawcx stands out as the industry’s first and only solution capable of enabling passwordless authentication for 6 billion internet users. For more information, visit www.hawcx.com.

Contacts

Riya Shanmugam
Co-Founder & CEO
riya@hawcx.com

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