Trustev, an Irish firm which uses 'social fingerprinting' technology to verify online shoppers in real time, has won the European Commission's Tech All Stars competition.
Founded last year, Cork-based Trustev says it helps e-commerce retailers verify customers through "the ridges created by a user's online interactions".
This involves checking multiple sources of dynamic social data - from sites such as Twitter and Facebook - and combining them with more traditional authentication sources.
The Trustev system then generates a person's score, which can be measured against established thresholds to allow, disallow or flag any transaction.
The start-up - which secured $300,000 in funding earlier this year - stores user data, which can be used to pre-populate forms during checkout to speed up the buying process.
Trustev beat off competition from almost 300 candidates to win the EC's start-up competition. It's reward is EUR10,000 in Amazon Web Service and access to Founders Forum and the chance to network with potential investors and entrepreneurs.