SkimGuard — Seed round

The thesis

Why the network is the moat.

Skimming costs banks, card networks, and insurers tens of billions of dollars a year. They have every reason to want a denser detection network than they could ever build alone. We make the consumer app free; the network produces the data they need.

A competitor can build the technology. They cannot build the network.

The side that pays the bill can't see the threat. The side that can see it has no reason to look. SkimGuard puts a sensor in every pocket — so the institutions paying for fraud can finally see where it's happening before the loss occurs.

Where we are

Shipping product, with the foundation for scale.

SkimGuard is not a deck — it's a live app with growing usage, FCC-approved hardware behind it, and the IP and corporate structure in place.

Live

Free consumer app — iOS & Android

Available on the App Store and Google Play. The only skimmer detector on Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Automatic scanning when the user arrives at a payment location.

In production

FCC-approved hardware platform

Reference hardware certified and ready for white-label deployments at retail and ATM operators.

Filed

Patent-pending detection methodology

Provisional patent filed on wireless signal classification approach. Defensible IP at the detection layer.

Underway

Data conversations with major card networks

In conversation with major card networks about pre-compromise fraud data. Insurer and identity-protection conversations also active.

The model

Three revenue lines. One free consumer product.

The consumer app is free and stays free — that's what builds the network. The institutions paying for fraud pay us for the data the network produces.

Data licensing Insurers, identity-protection companies, and card networks license pre-compromise fraud data to reduce losses they already pay for. Largest expected revenue line by Year 3.

B2B retail Retailers and ATM operators subscribe to reputation-protection alerts when skimmers are detected on their premises. Hardware deployments where on-prem sensors make sense.

Hardware White-label hardware sales to chains that want SkimGuard sensors deployed permanently across their footprint. FCC-approved platform, ready for orders.

Use of funds

$2M, 18-month runway.

The round funds the network growth phase: consumer acquisition to densify coverage, infrastructure to support the data product, and the first hires to support pilots.

~50%

Consumer growth

Paid acquisition and PR to grow installed base and densify detection coverage.

~30%

Engineering & ops

First key hires across mobile, ML, and data engineering. Infrastructure to support the data product.

~20%

BD & pilots

Convert active conversations with card networks, insurers, and retail chains into paid pilots.

Team

Built by an operator who's spent his career on payment infrastructure.

Joe Gilkey

Founder & CEO, SkimGuard, Inc.

Joe is the founder of SkimGuard. Prior to SkimGuard, he spent five years as Head of IT at King Kullen Grocery — a regional grocery chain with 25+ locations — where he owned payment terminal infrastructure and the cybersecurity perimeter across the chain. His earlier engineering career includes Principal Engineer at NAPCO Security Technologies, Senior Engineer at Clever Devices, and Senior Engineer at Clear.

He built SkimGuard solo, bootstrapped, after recognizing that the side with operational visibility into card skimming had no financial incentive to detect it, while the side bearing the losses had no visibility.

Get the materials

Let's talk.

Deck, financial model, detailed traction, and reference conversations available to qualified investors on request. Email Joe directly — every message gets a reply.

joe@skimguard.io Back to product