Last week, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported on a Pacific Northwest stealth startup that's receiving a lot of attention from Silicon Valley, at least measured in dollars. The $10 million round for Finsphere is an impressive endorsement, especially given the apparent involvement of prominent VC Mohr Davidow.

There's not a lot we know about the company other than the founders are out of the wireless industry and the company's services are described as "location-based transaction verification services." That sounds like using the GPS-based or triangulated location of mobile phone users to authenticate card transaction and/or online banking logins. Armed with the GPS reading, card companies would know that you (or at least your mobile phone) are where your credit card activity says you are, e.g., buying a tank of gas in Washington D.C.

With GPS capabilities coming to the iPhone next month, this could be a very large market indeed. If we are right about the product, we'll try to convince the company to demo at one of our Finovate conferences.