FinTech News
Automated Identity Verification Tool Veriff Raised $69 Million
One of the major challenges inherent to the FinTech sector involves regulation. While many startups aim to offer an easy and seamless experience to users, there are still several important steps they need to take in order to onboard customers while remaining compliant. This includes verifying the identity of applicants in order to prevent fraud. That’s where Veriff comes in, offering an intelligent and user-friendly solution for verification. In turn, the company has now garnered a new round of investment.
This week, global identity verification provider Veriff announced it had raised $69 million in its most recent funding round. The Series B was led by firms IVP and Accel. In turn, Jules Maltz of IVP and Matt Weigand of Accel will be appointed to Veriff’s board of directors. With that latest $69 million, the company has now raised a total of $92.8 million to date.
Counting FinTech’s such as Uphold, Blockchain.com, and others among its clients, Veriff offers an automated identity verification tool. For example, users can submit a “selfie” photo along with images of their official identification documents in order to confirm their information. Then, Veriff’s artificial intelligence will use such factors as face comparison, document data, user behavior, etc. to prevent fraud. According to their site, 98% of Veriff’s verifications are now automated, with decision time averaging 6 seconds. Additionally, the tool currently supports more than 9,000 types of documents (from more than 190 countries) and 95% of users are able to be verified on their first try.
Speaking to what the newest round of funding will mean for the company, Veriff’s founder and CEO Kaarel Kotkas stated, “At Veriff, we are building trust and transparency in the online world, and our round marks the highest Series B amount raised to date in the IDV market, putting us one step closer to eliminating widespread identity fraud while helping businesses grow and go digital.” Kotkas went on to says, “Veriff is considered a ‘secret weapon’ to fight against fraud and solve the hassle of online identity verification. Now backed by top investors in the world, we look forward to partner up with more companies to solve their identity verification challenges and work towards bringing more trust online.”
As the need for Veriff continues to grow alongside the popularity of FinTech, it’s easy to imagine the company being compared to other tools such as Plaid that are now employed by numerous big brands and small startups alike. Of course, to reach such prominence, the firm will need to not only increase its reach but also show that it’s the best solution for the job. Luckily, the latest investment round should assist with that first part, making Veriff a startup that’s certainly worth watching.
