Identity theft protection company LifeLock has acquired Lemon Inc, creator of an innovative digital wallet, for $42.6m.
Lemon Wallet launched in 2012 with the aim of âdelivering the most consumer focused, secure and innovative digital wallet experience on the marketâ.
The app was initially designed as a backup of a physical wallet, but it went on to develop more and more useful features, with users being able access real time account balances and fraud alerts.
LifeLock launched its own new app today â LifeLock Wallet â which utilizes all of Lemonâs technology to aid users in the management and protection of their digital identity.
Exciting news today: @LifeLock acquires @LemonWallet and releases new LifeLock Wallet http://t.co/F8joixYccJ
â LifeLock (@LifeLock) December 12, 2013
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Back in August, Wences Casares, founder and CEO of Lemon, said he was looking into supporting bitcoin on Lemon Wallet, but this wasnât implemented before the sale of Lemon Inc. He told CoinDesk today that the LifeLock Wallet will not integrate bitcoin as it âis not, and will not be, a transactional productâ.
âIt is about keeping your transactional identity handy in your phone and making it secure,â he added.
Casares, personally, is still a big believer in digital currency, though, reiterating what he said back in August: âI think bitcoin is going to do for money what TCP/IP did to information. [It is] probably the most revolutionary technology since the Internet itself.â
Speaking about todayâs acquisition, LifeLock CEO Todd Davis said:
âThe acquisition of Lemon dramatically expands our mobile capabilities, enabling us to launch a robust consumer wallet app in the marketplace on day one. The innovation and expertise from a mobile-first company like Lemon gives us powerful new ways to engage with current and future members.â
Lemon Wallet was downloaded more than 3.6m times, enabling users to store a digital copy of the contents of their wallets. This means users could keep a record of their credit card numbers, loyalty card details, ID card information and much more.
âAt Lemon, weâve built our business around digitizing everything in your physical wallet and making it available anywhere and anytime on your smartphone,â said Casares, adding:
âJoining forces with LifeLock makes tremendous strategic sense and provides something completely new in the market: a digital wallet combined with a way to help protect it.â
He said that now that LifeLockâs acquisition of Lemon is complete, his role is to run LifeLockâs mobile division.
LifeLock was founded in 2005 and has raised $178m in funding, with investors including Goldman Sachs and Symantec, according to Crunchbase.
Lemon received $8m in Series A funding back in June 2012. The companyâs investors included Maveron, CampVentures and Lightspeed Venture Partners, which was part of a $5m funding round for bitcoin exchange BTC China last month.