Out of 50 companies, and three finalists, Encap Security was named the winner of the FinTech Innovation Award 2016 at the TechLive! Financial Disruption Conference in Oslo last week. InnoMag had a chat with CEO Thomas Bostrøm Jørgensen.
But first, who is Encap security?
– Encap Security provides better, smarter authentication for financial institutions. It is the only authentication platform to deliver uncompromising security and user experience across any application, device or channel – at Internet scale, Jørgensen says.
– People hate the way they have to log in to online and mobile services with a multitude of questions, complicated passwords and annoying fobs and tokens. The majority of people carry smartphones and tablets however. We let financial institutions harness the power of these devices toprovide authentication that customers enjoy rather than find painful.
– One client in Norway switched from giving their customers key fobs to using our solution. Before, half of all customer calls were about authentication issues. Now it’s down to 0.05%.
Digitization is creating a change in a faster tempo. Will Norway follow or will we be left behind at the station as the train leaves?
– When it comes to finance, Norway is driving the train! We are already nearly a cashless society, whereas countries like the USA are struggling with EMV cards and Japan still relies heavily on cash. Fintech innovators from Norway, including Encap, are seen as leading the market. But there are hubs of financial innovation appearing around the world – for example in Sydney, Singapore, and Hong Kong, so we need make sure we don’t fall behind.
Jørgensen believes that on scale from 1 – 10, Encap are presented on a 9 when it comes to how deeply innovation is embedded in the company.
– We are continually improving our solution so, for example, it’s safe to use our solution to log in even on a device that’s compromised by malware. We’re about to announce the 8th release of our platform in the last 3 years. In 2015, respected industry analyst house Goode Intelligence, gave our platform – Smarter Authentication – it’s highest possible rating.
– However, we work in many different markets, some more mature than others, some more open to innovation than others. For example, some of our clients who operate in markets with limited Internet connectivity and must use legacy technology like SMS.
– We can’t be so innovative that we don’t meet our customers’ needs!
Who are your biggest competitors?
– Our biggest competitor is inertia. Many banks have invested heavily in online and mobile services designed to meet the needs of digitally savvy consumers and increase return on equity. Many don’t realise that these services are being held back by authentication that their customers don’t like. And most don’t realise how much more engaging and powerful services could be with smarter authentication. We’re demonstrating that they need to change to keep customers happy and remain competitive in an increasingly turbulent market.
What will be your main focus this year?
– We’re continuing to refine and improve our solution (version 3.1 is out imminently), we expect to announce a number of new customers and deals, and continue our expansion across Europe and North America.
