California-based biometric access control firm Alcatraz AI has closed a US$50 million Series B funding round, which it will use to expand into new verticals and international markets.

​The latest round brings the startup’s total funding to over $100M since its founding. The financing was led by Bulgarian private equity firm BlackPeak Capital, Warsaw-based venture fund Cogito Capital, and Taiwania Capital, a venture capital firm founded by the Taiwanese government.

​Other backers include existing investors Almaz Capital, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and Ray Stata, an investor and co-founder of Analog Devices.

​The company’s main product is the Rock, a face biometric access control system that authenticates users as they walk into a space. The system is anonymized, meaning it doesn’t identify a person based on a stored facial image; instead, it converts snapshots of faces into encrypted representations, which are then bound to a credential.

​In 2025, the company reported strong growth, including a 200 percent increase in new enterprise customers and a 300 percent year-over-year increase in data center adoption. Other clients include sport venues, R&D centers, financial institutions, universities and airports, including the Honolulu Daniel K. Inouye International Airport.

​“The world’s largest airports, energy companies, and the world’s most critical data centers all trust Alcatraz,” the company’s CEO, Tina D’Agostin, says in a statement.

​The fresh financing comes just as the Cupertino-headquartered firm celebrates its 10th anniversary.

​Alcatraz was founded in 2016 by Vince Gaydarzhiev, a former Apple product lead who worked on hardware prototyping for iPad and iPhone during the development of Face ID. The Bulgarian‑born engineer says he was inspired to “create a Face ID for the physical world,” he recently told media outlet Entrepreneur.

The company completed its $25 million Series A round in 2022.

According to Gaydarzhiev, the startup focuses on selling within specific sectors, rather than trying to pitch their products to all markets at once.

“We’re going after the sectors that need our technology the most,” he says.

Alcatraz has 110 employees working from Cupertino and Sofia, Bulgaria.

Article Topics

access control  |  Alcatraz AI  |  biometrics  |  facial authentication  |  funding  |  investment