Magic launches from stealth after close of seed round

Magic, a passwordless authentication platform, has come out of stealth mode after closing a $4m seed round.

The investment was led by Placeholder, with additional support coming from Lightspeed Ventures, SV Angel, Social Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Volt Capital, Refactor Capital, Unusual Ventures, Naval Ravikant, Guillermo Rauch and Roham Gharegozlou.

With the close of the round, the company hopes to boost the adoption of its service and release new hardware.

Through the Magic software development kit (SDK) developers can create a login experience where users can authenticate themselves by clicking a link in an email. This

Its services are used by Slack, Medium and Substack. The platform, which launched in 2019, is used by more than 6,500 developers.

Data from Verizon claims that 80% of hacking related data breaches involve compromised and weak credentials, with many consumers reusing passwords across various websites.

In addition to the funding round, the company has announced a number of new partnerships. The firm is now working with Vercel, Max Planck Society and Dapper Labs.

In a blog post, the company said, “One of our core principles is to allow developers to completely own their user authentication experience — building relationships directly with their end-users. This way, they are no longer susceptible to the control and risks induced by centralized identity lock-in from Facebook, Apple, and Google.

“Magic is the bridge to a more secure and authentic Internet, and authentication is just the beginning. By leveraging future-proof PKI and identity technology under-the-hood, Magic also lets developers tap into new infrastructures such as IPFS and blockchain — unlocking endless possibilities and innovative business models.”

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