The Voice Authentication Journey for Illuma

Compared to speech recognition, which was invented in its most rudimentary form in the 1950s, voice authentication only emerged as a commercially viable technology solution in banking over the last couple of decades. For Illuma, the journey to developing voice verification to secure phone calls began in 2016 as an advanced R&D project with the Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA), with the first version of Illuma Shield™ hitting the market in 2020. Since that time, the company has gained increasing recognition for innovation and for making voice authentication software affordable and accessible to a wide variety of community financial institutions. 

In a recent interview with Greg Palmer, VP at Finovate, Illuma Founder and CEO, Milind Borkar, opened up about the journey so far and what lies ahead.

According to Borkar, “We started off as an advanced R&D contractor for the federal government and had a sequence of contracts with the Department of Homeland Security that led to developing a very lightweight voice recognition engine. Today, Illuma is a FinTech and DeepTech R&D company. We specialize in providing passive voice verification solutions for mid-market financial institutions, particularly credit unions, community banks, and regional banks.”

Early Recognition and Success with Pilot Customers

After making a splash at Finovate in 2019, the demand from the financial sector for a streamlined and affordable voice authentication system proved overwhelming. This interest grew in the subsequent years, keeping pace with the continued maturation of the voice biometrics solution. The  most recent Finovate (Fall 2024) saw the Illuma team capturing Best in Show for the latest innovation in fraud prevention technology.

Following the initial design, development, and implementation of the voice biometrics system with a number of customers, it was obvious that the system was hitting the mark in terms of accuracy and utility. Even for the first few customers including TruWest Credit Union, Connexus Credit Union, and TDECU, the gains in improving caller experience, operational efficiency, and account security delivered high ROI.

“Our authentication time has been reduced by more than 75 seconds per call. We’re seeing a measurable impact on hundreds of calls per day.” – Chris Kearney, President & CEO, TruWest Credit Union

Integration Embedded Illuma in the Call Center Ecosystem

The next step was to extend the availability of the system by integrating with additional telephony platforms. Mitel was among the first platforms to be integrated, followed by many more, including Genesys Cloud CX and Glia. Each new integration made the Illuma system more accessible and easier to deploy in banking call centers. 

“We were looking to remove friction from our client experience with the contact center, while also providing enhanced security for our customers’ accounts.  We were impressed with the strength of Illuma’s product and delightfully surprised that the solution could be integrated with our digital customer platform within 2 weeks.” – Jen Zorn,  CIO, Evans Bank

The search to provide maximum utility for the banking sector led to an exploration of how voice biometrics could be deployed in the IVR to enhance 24/7 self-service and further lighten the load for contact center teams. 

According to Milind, “There was a pretty significant update we had when we demonstrated with Posh on stage at Finovate. This was our first demonstration as an integration into a full self -service conversational AI bot.” This technology partnership garnered Illuma and Posh first prize in the NACUSO “Next Big Idea” competition in 2022. 

Driving Innovation to Fight Deep Fake Threats

The most recent, award-winning Finovate demo was directed at the latest threat putting financial accounts at risk: voice cloning. In the voice biometrics space, this topic has garnered a great deal of attention. Borkar noted the prevalence of technology used for creating deep fakes and Illuma’s response. “It’s becoming easier and easier to replicate people’s voices with very readily available tools on the web.” 

Always at the forefront of R&D for voice biometric technology, Illuma has invested substantially in staying ahead of this emerging threat. The demonstration of the Illuma Shield™ deep fake detection engine unveiled this state-of-the-art solution. “Our latest demo showed Illuma’s significant enhancement in features and capabilities. By incorporating deep fake detection into our product, we can essentially defend against the newest form of threats on generative AI.”

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Where Could Illuma Be in Five Years?

The latest Series A capital raise brought an influx of $9 million in new funding to the Illuma team. As a dedicated FinTech partner, Illuma will be using this funding to continue innovating for its core customer base of community banks, credit unions, and regional banks. 

Looking at the larger picture of voice biometrics security, the Illuma Shield solution is also poised to serve additional industries where protecting against identity fraud is a key concern.  Illuma’s continued efforts around integration are making affordable voice authentication available outside of the financial sector as a good fit for healthcare, insurance, telco, utility, and government use cases.

While the call center is the obvious place for initial deployment, that is just the beginning of the potential landscape for voice interactions. According to Milind, “When you take a step back, you do realize that the problem is not just faced within these specific targeted verticals, but they have a broader use case even outside the contact center.” 

As the world becomes more digitally connected through voice, there is explosive potential for growth in the use of voice biometrics. Consumers are increasingly turning to voice as a preferred method for online transactions. In news reported by BusinessWire, in 2024, worldwide sales of smart speakers is expected to exceed $30 billion. Yaguara.co reports that voice search is used daily by more than 50% of adults worldwide. And the consumer side of voice usage is only part of the picture. 

The business side adds another layer. According to recent data from StraitsResearch, “The shift towards remote work environments and virtual collaboration accelerates the adoption of voice biometrics for secure remote access and authentication. Voice authentication enables remote employees to securely access corporate networks, systems, and sensitive data.” With “vishing” a rising concern, helpdesks have become a target for identity fraud, putting entire IT systems at risk. Read more about the potential helpdesk use case for voice biometrics here.

What would be the big picture goal for the Illuma team in this new world of voice connection? Milind shared his vision for a future where Illuma Shield™ voice biometrics provides security for transactions everywhere. “There is the potential for Illuma to become the preferred voice security provider, no matter how big or small you are, no matter how your customers engage you, whether it is in branch, over the phone, at an ATM, swiping a card at a gas station, any of those places where voice ends up being a very natural user interface, we want to be there. We want to be the primary provider. With the support we have from our investors and our clients today, that’s a goal that I think is very easily achievable for us.”