As generative AI accelerates the rise of deepfakes, voice cloning, and synthetic identities, securing digital access has never been more urgent or more complex. Into this high-stakes landscape steps Israeli startup Unibeam, which today announced a $6 million seed round led by NFX, with participation from AnD Ventures. The company’s mission is as ambitious as it is timely: to eliminate passwords, OTPs, and apps by using SIM-based cryptographic authentication that works across all phones.
Unibeam’s breakthrough centers around the SIM and eSIM chips already present in every mobile device, transforming them into secure identity anchors. Instead of relying on vulnerable methods like SMS-based codes or app-based tokens, Unibeam utilizes cryptographic binding to securely tie a user’s identity to a unique combination of SIM/eSIM ID, device ID, and phone number. The result? Deterministic identity verification that’s virtually impossible to spoof.
A Crisis in Confidence: OTP and MFA Failures
This innovation couldn’t come at a more critical time. SIM-swapping attacks surged over 1,000% in the UK alone in 2024, according to industry reports. In the U.S., SIM-swap fraud cost victims over $68 million in 2023, per the Federal Trade Commission. The FBI and CISA also jointly warned businesses to move away from SMS-based One-Time Passwords (OTPs), which have long been considered a cornerstone of multi-factor authentication (MFA), citing their susceptibility to phishing, interception, and social engineering.
Despite these warnings, SMS remains the default secondary authentication factor for over 55% of enterprises, according to a 2024 study by Okta. The reason? Simplicity. But simplicity has come at the expense of security and trust.
Enter Unibeam: Deterministic, Not Probabilistic
Current MFA and identity verification solutions often rely on probabilistic models (patterns of behavior, location, or usage history) to guess if a user is legitimate. These models are inherently fallible. They are also expensive, data-intensive, and vulnerable to manipulation, particularly by AI-generated spoofing techniques.
Unibeam’s deterministic model cuts through that ambiguity. “We’re not just improving authentication—we’re redefining it,” said Gigi Levy-Weiss, Founding Partner at NFX. “By anchoring identity to the eSIM/SIM and device, they’ve created a deterministic approach that’s virtually impossible to spoof.”
This approach means there’s nothing to remember, nothing to download, and nothing to intercept. A user simply confirms their identity via the secure SIM infrastructure already embedded in their device.
Built for the Real World, Not Just Smartphones
Unibeam’s reach goes beyond high-end smartphones. It’s designed to work on all handsets, including feature phones that still make up nearly 30% of mobile devices in emerging markets, according to GSMA Intelligence. It’s also OS-agnostic, API-based, and fully SaaS-delivered, offering near-universal applicability across global networks and devices.
This universality opens up powerful use cases: not only secure login and MFA for banks and enterprises, but also IoT device authentication, transaction approvals, and bot detection—key vulnerabilities in today’s connected ecosystem.
Redefining Security in the Age of AI Fraud
“The best security doesn’t just block threats—it gets out of the user’s way,” said Ran Ben-David, Unibeam’s Founder and CEO. Ben-David is a mobile security veteran, and he’s assembled a leadership team with deep SIM technology expertise, including CTO Steve Harkins, along with a telecom-heavy advisory board featuring Amos Genish, Stéphane Richard, and Michel Combes.
As AI-powered fraud becomes more sophisticated, the need for deterministic, friction-free authentication is growing. In 2023 alone, over $23 billion in global losses were attributed to traditional identity fraud, according to Javelin Strategy & Research. The global authentication market is expected to grow to $41.29 billion by 2030, driven largely by the shortcomings of today’s fragmented systems.
A Future Without Passwords
Unibeam’s promise is bold: a passwordless, app-free future where identity is built into the hardware of every device, confirmed with cryptography, and invisible to the end user.
By removing the trade-offs between security and convenience, the company is positioned to become a foundational layer of digital trust in a world increasingly shaped by AI, automation, and anonymity.
With fresh funding, a seasoned leadership team, and urgent market need, Unibeam may just be the company that finally puts passwords and phishing scams in the past.
