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Socure has acquired risk decisioning company Effectiv for $136 million
Socure will integrate Effectiv’s AI-powered orchestration platform into its digital identity verification and fraud solutions.
The acquisition will enable Socure to enhance fraud prevention, automate identity verification, and manage risk across onboarding, authentication, payments, account changes, and more.
Digital identity verification company Socure has acquired risk decisioning company Effectiv in a $136 million deal.
The agreement, which is set to close next month, will bring Effectiv’s developer-friendly, AI orchestration and decisions platform into Socure’s digital identity verification and fraud solutions platform. Socure expects the purchase will enhance its customers’ fraud-fighting efforts while offering the ability to verify identities across the entire customer journey.
Socure will use Effectiv to create complex, combinatorial rules that apply not only to its own solutions but also to those from third parties. Effectiv will provide a unified approach to enhancing identity verification for Socure, automating risk and trust decisions across various processes, including onboarding, authentication, payments, account updates, account recovery, and regulatory filings.
Effectiv, which demoed at FinovateFall 2023, was founded in 2021 to provide an open platform that integrates a wide range of risk solutions– including identity and payment fraud controls, underwriting, Know Your Business (KYB) and anti-money laundering (AML) tools– to facilitate decisions in real-time. Using Effectiv’s technology, firms can combat identity theft, account takeover, scams, and real-time payment fraud. Among the company’s clients are Ouro/Netspend, Lightspeed Commerce, Cardless, and Payco.
Today’s move positions Socure in the $200 billion enterprise fraud industry. The Nevada-based company, which currently serves 2,700 customers, will now be able to help its clients tackle payments fraud, credit underwriting, and AML transaction monitoring.
“With a world-class platform from Effectiv and analytics that allows for adaptive and progressive risk decisioning, we will be able to help our partners with a single view of identity to drive instant risk and trust decisions anytime, anywhere,” said Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers.
This isn’t Socure’s first time working with the Effectiv team. The company worked with Effectiv founders Ravi Sandepudi, Ritesh Arora, Jonathan Doering, and Anupam Tarsauliya when they worked at fraud prevention platform Simility before it was acquired by PayPal for $120 million in 2018.
Logistically, the Effectiv team will join Socure. The group will work to develop and promote Socure’s platform product, engineering, data science, and will immediately contribute to its enterprise go-to-market strategy.
“Socure has uniquely built everything required to solve for new account opening at the identity level—arguably the hardest problem because it’s the first time you’ve seen the consumer,” said Effectiv CEO and Co-founder Ravi Sandepudi. “Now we can review and analyze the user’s risk profile across transactions and accounts over time, maintaining an up-to-date perspective which was impossible before.”
Sandepudi will become Head of Platform Products at Socure.
As summer draws to a close, there may be a big acquisition on the horizon in the fraud and financial crime prevention space. Be sure to check in with Finovate’s Fintech Rundown all week long for the latest in fintech news.
The battle against fraud is a never-ending one. And recent fintech news headlines have helped remind us all of how broad the frontlines are. From the challenge of AI-powered deepfakes to the sad fact that many of our own bad habits continue to keep fraudsters in business, fintechs are busy developing solutions to help us get and stay at least one step ahead of the bad guys. Here are a trio of stories highlighting the latest efforts by fintechs to combat financial crime.
Digital identity verification innovator Socure has unveiled its Selfie Reverification solution. The new capability provides a way to validate return consumers online in less than two seconds with just a selfie. The technology matches incoming selfies with previously verified ID headshots, and features a true match rate of 99.9%. Built on the company’s Document Verification (DocV) solution, Selfie Reverification also detects signs of deepfaking, and readily identifies age discrepancies between the photo and the credential.
“Identity verification isn’t a one-time event. As consumers interact with an online service over time, their risk profile can change. That’s why it’s important to determine you are still who you say you are, without going through the full verification process again,” explained Socure Chief Product and Analytics Officer Pablo Abreu.
Selfie Reverification prompts the user to take a selfie, and sends real-time feedback on positioning, angle, and lighting. Once taken, the selfie undergoes a Level 2 NIST PAD compliant liveness check to prevent spoofing, as well as Socure’s injection attack detection process which makes sure that a fraudster has not injected a false or altered credential into the session. Lastly, the selfie is compared against a set of hundreds of thousands of curated deepfake samples created by more than 20 different AI generators.
The technology leverages biometric analytics to evaluate more than 80 facial features, from eye distance and nose width to jawline contours and emotional expression, to create a facial map and ensure an accurate match. Use cases for Selfie Reverification include preventing account takeover, securing high-risk transactions, streamlining account recovery and re-verification/re-validation, and more.
Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada, Socure most recently demoed its technology on the Finovate stage at FinovateFall 2017. Today, the company has more than 2,500 customers, including four of the top five banks, the top credit bureau, and 400+ fintechs. Businesses ranging from Capital One and SoFi to DraftKings and the State of California rely on Socure’s technology for accurate identity verification and fraud prevention. Johnny Ayers is Socure’s founder and CEO.
Digital banking solution provider Alkami has added credential stuffing protection to the challenge-response authentication process for its digital banking platform. The new functionality automatically checks for human behavior in the background, but does not require visual puzzles or any additional time spent by the user.
“This enhancement in Alkami’s platform has given us the ability to provide an additional layer of security for our account holders,” Quontic Bank SVP of Digital Banking Grace Pace said. “The secure and seamless login experience has contributed to reducing potential fraudulent activities, offering our customers greater peace of mind without added complexity.”
Credential stuffing refers to a type of cyberattack in which a hacker uses credentials obtained through data breaches or purchased from the dark web in order to attempt to access another service. A typical case of credential stuffing, for example, could involve a hacker using the credentials from a breach at a retail store to attempt to log into a bank’s website.
Credential stuffing is a common attack in part because it takes advantage of the tendency of individuals to reuse usernames and passwords. But its commonality takes nothing away from the damage these attacks do. One estimate determined that credential stuffing costs businesses $6 million a year on average, to say nothing of the negative reputational impact that often accompanies it.
The addition of credential stuffing protection is the latest example of Alkami’s layered approach to fraud detection and prevention in digital banking. “Alkami continues to evolve its platform as the security threats change for our customers, and we’re proud to integrate credential stuffing as part of our standard solution for everyone,” Alkami Director of Product Management Brad Cranford said. “Our goal is to help our customers manage security while providing the best experiences for their account holders.”
Headquartered in Plano, Texas, Alkami made its Finovate debut in 2009 as “IThryv.” Alex Shootman is CEO.
Data and technology company Experian is adding behavioral analytics to its fraud detection capabilities courtesy of a newly announced acquisition of NeuroID.
More specifically, Experian is looking to bolster its defenses against AI-generated fraud threats. With their ability to apply fraud detection strategies to key vulnerabilities such as origination and account management, insights from behavioral analytics can help mitigate fraud in real time and defend users against a range of malevolent actions including identity theft, account takeover, bot attacks, and fraud rings.
“Our acquisition of NeuroID highlights our commitment to provide our clients with world-class data, analytics, and insights to prevent fraud,” said President of Experian’s North American Identity & Fraud business, Robert Boxberger. “Together with NeuroID, we’re excited to build new blended offerings that detect risk but also empower businesses to confidently navigate the online landscape and trust in their transactions.” He added, “In today’s highly competitive and digital-first world, the use of behavioral analytics is now vital for innovating for the future of fighting fraud.”
NeuroID’s solutions are now available via CrossCore on the Experian Ascend Technology platform. The integration will enable platform users to use a single service provider to monitor and analyze real-time digital activity.
“NeuroID unlocks a new view into a user’s riskiness based on behavioral interactions,” NeuroID CEO Jack Alton said. “This view arms companies with a proactive, first line of defense to detect sophisticated fraud rings and bot attacks. By joining forces with Experian, we’re looking forward to helping companies confidently navigate this new era with solutions that enable more secure and frictionless experiences.”
A Finovate alum since 2011, Experian most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in New York in 2018. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, the company employs more than 22,000 people, including more than 9,000 technologists and product developers, working in 32 countries.
Are you an innovative fintech with new technology that’s ready for prime time? Join us in New York next month for FinovateFall and take advantage of the opportunity to showcase your solution before an audience of 2,000+ decision-makers.
We’re midway through August, and while everyone attempts to sneak in their final summer vacation days, the fintech news continues on. While we’ve seen a handful of acquisition news headlines so far this summer, I expect things to tick up slightly this fall. Stay tuned throughout the week to read the latest news this week as we post updates and evolutions.
Digital identity verification innovator Socure announced a partnership with identity-secured transactions company Proof.
The partnership will combine Proof’s Defend solution with Socure’s Sigma Fraud suite to help companies fight fraud and forgery in authorizations, agreements, contracts, and forms.
Founded in 2012, Socure made its Finovate debut the following year at FinovateFall in New York.
A new partnership between digital identity verification innovator Socure and identity-secured transactions company Proof will bring new tools to the fight against fraud and forgery in authorizations, contracts, and forms.
“With the explosion of new fraud vectors, our mission at Socure remains steadfast: use AI to deliver the most accurate anti-fraud and identity verification solutions in the industry,” Socure Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said. “Partnering with Proof allows us to uniquely ensure identity-assured transactions for contracts, authorizations, forms, and high-risk financial events across various sectors.”
While there is widespread understanding about threats like money laundering that cost businesses $18 billion every year, the challenge from document fraud is significantly greater. A 2021 report from FINCEN revealed that false records and forgery are responsible for more than $45 billion in fraud activity annually. Fraudsters also have become more effective at leveraging AI to deploy deepfakes, synthetic identities, and – in the case of document fraud – falsified records.
The partnership will blend the strengths of Proof’s Defend solution with Socure’s Sigma Fraud suite. Defend leverages 100+ behavioral, fraud risk signals to detect fraud in online customer interactions. Businesses get a risk score for every transaction that highlights any fraud issues behind the authorization, signature, notarization, or identity verification.
Sigma Fraud analyzes historic behavioral patterns across channels to spot anomalies that may indicate fraudulent activity at the identity level. The suite also is backed by consortium data from the Socure Risk Insights Network, which draws from nearly 2,400 customers from the country’s largest banks, fintechs, payment platforms, and payroll providers.
“Adding Socure’s digital identity verification capabilities to Defend, our fraud detection and prevention product, allows customers to secure transactions at every stage, quickly and accurately,” Proof CEO Pat Kinsel said. “We can’t think of a better partner and are excited to introduce Socure to Defend clients.”
Founded in 2012, Socure made its Finovate debut at FinovateFall a year later. Most recently demoing its technology on the Finovate stage in 2017, Socure has since grown into a leader in digital identity verification with more than 2,300 customers. Last month, the company unveiled its new global watchlist screening and monitoring tool. The solution gives financial institutions the ability to screen, monitor, and assess new and existing customers against the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanction lists and politically exposed persons (PEP) databases, adverse media, and custom watchlists.
Socure began the year announcing a pair of new partnerships. In January, the company reported that auto finance company Exeter Finance would deploy the Socure ID+ platform to onboard new customers. In February, Socure teamed up with fellow Finovate alum Trustly to offer a Pay-by-Bank solution with streamlined onboarding.
Pay by bank expert Trustly and digital identity solutions provider Socure have teamed up this week.
Together, the companies will offer streamlined onboarding through Trustly’s Pay By Bank services.
Pay-by-bank is expected to see growth this year because of its potential to offer merchants enhanced security, increased speed of payments, and cost savings.
Online payments expert Trustly and digital identity verification and fraud solutions provider Socure are combining their expertis, to launch a pay-by-bank solution with enhanced onboarding, leveraging the power of open banking.
The new tool will offer businesses in a range of sectors– including investing, gaming, trading, and financial services– streamlined onboarding capabilities combined with pay-by-bank functionality. Specifically, Socure’s ID+ platform, leveraging AI-driven predictive analytics, will be integrated with Trustly’s direct banking integration Pay By Bank offering, enabling merchants to seamlessly onboard users and process payments in a single unified process.
“Combining open banking with KYC and screening greatly enhances the robustness of user onboarding and incorporates a seamless payment solution, providing consumers the ultimate onboarding experience,” said Trustly Chief Business Development Officer Craig McDonald.
On the fraud side, the augmented pay-by-bank solution enhances not only KYC compliance, but also fraud detection and ID verification capabilities, which are crucial in today’s era of advanced deepfakes and synthetic identities. Additionally, the tool helps merchants benefit from the power of open banking, which offers instant and guaranteed payments because they are authorized directly by the bank. This provides a higher level of security compared to other payment methods.
“We are very excited about our partnership with Trustly and its pay-by-bank business model. We think this diversity in payment types brought about by open banking is representative of a new era for consumer choice,” said Evan Rabinowitz, Vice President of Business Development at Socure. “We have a shared belief that trusted identity is essential to the transformation of open and connected banking.”
Trustly was founded in 2008 and today connects its 8,300 merchant clients with 650 million consumers and 12,000 banks in more than 30 countries. The company’s pay-by-bank network currently processes over $42 billion in transaction volume each year. In 2018, Nordic Capital bought Trustly for an undisclosed amount, and since then, Trustly has acquired three companies of its own, including SlimPay, Ecospend, and PayWithMyBank.
Trustly is positioned for growth in 2024, especially in the U.S., which offer significant potential. According to Financial Brand contributor Steve Cocheo, “Pay-by-bank services will accelerate in 2024 in the U.S., driven by a combination of at least five converging trends: the growing availability of real-time payment rails; increased interest from businesses seeking to avoid card processing fees and gain faster access to funds; increasing democratization of payments; a move away from subscriptions to micropayments, and even a potentially big push courtesy of Elon Musk’s banking ambitions.”
Nevada-based Socure was founded in 2012, focusing on its digital identity verification solution. As many services have moved online and ecommerce has accelerated, the company has grown, helping 2,000 customers– including SoFi, Chime, and Capital One– in verifying the identities of their end consumers to help prevent fraud. Socure has raised more than $744 million. Johnny Ayers is Founder and CEO.
Starting off the holiday-shortened week with more than a few fintech partnership announcements in payments as well as some positive funding news in the challenger bank/neobank space.
Follow this space all week long for more updates on the latest in fintech!
Payments
Localized payment solutions network Bokuintroduces new Chief Executive Officer Stuart Neal.
Mangopay, a payments infrastructure provider for marketplaces and platforms, teams up with Storfund.
Integrated payments and commerce technology company Shift4teams up with mobile payment provider MobilePay.
Worldlineforges strategic partnership with Google to leverage the cloud to enhance global payments orchestration.
U.K.-based rent data company CreditLadderadds new reporting functionality to its digital identity app, Digital ID Connect.
Digital Banking
Colorado-based Elevations Credit Union partners with digital banking platform provider Alkami.
Co-op Credit Union extends its partnership with MDT, a CUSO that hosts the Symitar core processing system from Jack Henry, and adds digital and data capabilities.
TandemunveilsGoals feature set, announces $3.7 million in seed funding.
Pinwheelcollaborates with Jack Henry to streamline access to direct deposit switching solution
Mortgagetech
Obligoteams up with BNY Mellon to digitize the rental process for property managers.
Credit Risk & Analytics
Collections and credit risk specialist Akuvo announces that 21 new financial institutions have signed up for its delinquency management platform.
Insurtech
Qoverlaunches its automobile insurance solution in the U.K.
Socure is acquiring automated identity verification solution provider Berbix for $70 million.
Socure has used Berbix’s technology to launch its Predictive Document Verification (DocV) 3.0 solution.
The new acquisition will also help Socure accelerate its international expansion.
Digital identity verification company Socure has acquired automated identity verification solution Berbix for $70 million. The deal marks the first-ever acquisition for Nevada-based Socure.
Founded in 2018, Berbix launched a document verification solution with a forensics engine that detects spoofed IDs – including AI-generated fake IDs. Socure will leverage this technology to accelerate its international expansion by providing global coverage of ICAO-compliant travel documents, passports, and national ID cards.
“I’m extremely proud of what we built at Berbix to advance state-of-the-art document verification,” said Berbix CEO and co-founder Eric Levine. “Moving forward with Socure, we are able to multiply our impact on day one by leveraging our technology with Socure’s substantial customer base, reach, and reputation. Combining our independent investments in document verification is yielding stunning results – and we’re just getting started.”
Socure has already integrated Berbix’s technology into its own to launch its Predictive Document Verification (DocV) 3.0 solution. The new tool combines Berbix’s forensics engine and data extraction with Socure’s image capture app. The company has found that DocV 3.0 has been able to increase first-attempt auto approvals of good consumers by 26% and increase fraudulent document capture by 27%.
While DocV 3.0 is used within Socure’s integrated identity platform, it is also available as a standalone solution.
“DocV 3.0 represents a significant departure from legacy providers whose document verification models rely on simple template checks and rules to determine if a document is legitimate,” said Socure Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers. “Without running sophisticated fraud models on related personally identifiable information (PII), or pairing the documentary check with rich device, phone ownership, geolocation, and behavioral data, customers see far less accurate decisions, resulting in higher fraud and lower customer acceptance. This prohibits companies from using document verification solutions for high-risk onboarding, authentication, or transactions. It’s a real gap in how ID document verification can be used.”
Socure has more than 1,800+ customers across a range of industries. The company serves four of the top five banks, 13 of the top 15 card issuers, over 400 of the largest fintechs, and more. Among Socure’s customers are Chime, SoFi, Robinhood, Gusto, Poshmark, and the State of California. Since it was founded in 2012, the company has raised $742 million from the likes of Citi Ventures, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Capital One Ventures, Synchrony, and others.
Socure partnered with payments company Alacriti to bring identity fraud prevention to instant payments.
The partnership comes as the transition toward instant payments gains steam in the U.S.
Socure most recently demoed its digital identity verification technology at FinovateFall 2017.
Socure and Alacriti have teamed up to bring third-party and synthetic identity fraud prevention to instant payments.
The partnership will enable financial institutions to use end-to-end, turnkey, instant payment solutions with the benefit of integrated fraud prevention. This will benefit FIs using Alacriti’s Cosmos Payments Hub, which enables institutions to offer their customers modern money movement. The partnership also supports Alacriti’s Orbipay AIQ, a cloud-based machine learning-based fraud prevention solution powered by Socure’s Sigma Fraud suite. Orbipay AIQ helps FIs manage the specific fraud and risk challenges that are associated with instant payments. The technology can be used to augment existing fraud detection systems or as a standalone solution. Orbipay AIQ works for both payment rails such as The Clearing House’s RTP network, the FedNow Service, and Visa Direct. The technology is also compatible with more conventional rails like ACH and Wires.
“Our partnership with Alacriti protects financial institutions and their account holders from predatory fraudsters, improving their trust and confidence when making faster payments transactions,” Socure VP of Business Development Evan Rabinowitz said. “The joining of a comprehensive identity verification and fraud prevention platform with the Cosmos Payments Hub helps financial institutions safely deliver payments innovation quickly and with less risk to market.”
Socure made its Finovate debut in 2013 and most recently demoed its technology at FinovateFall in 2017. This year, the company teamed up with Okta to bring identity verification products to government IT solutions provider Carahsoft. Also, in March, Socure won “Best Identity Verification Solution” at the FinTech Breakthrough Awards for a second year in a row.
The company has raised more than $741 million in funding. Socure’s investors include T. Rowe Price, Accel, and Capital One Ventures. Last month, Socure announced a $95 million credit facility. J.P. Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank, and KeyBanc Capital Markets provided the financing.
“Socure is in an exceptional position to solve what organizations and government agencies need most today – accurate and inclusive real-time identity verification without costly fraud and friction within the customer experience,” Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said when the credit facility was announced in March. “With this facility further strengthening our balance sheet, Socure is in a tremendous position to leave the recession much stronger than when we went into it while continuing to distance ourselves from the competition through investments in new solutions, verticals, and strategic acquisitions.”
Identity verification and fraud solution provider Socure is teaming up with business verification and identity platform Middesk.
The partnership is the first instance in which two Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC0 innovators have created an integrated, end-to-end business verification solution.
Socure, a Finovate alum since 2013, has raised more than $646 million in funding.
Digital identity verification and fraud solutions provider Socureannounced an industry-first partnership this week with business verification and identity platform Middesk. The integration combines Socure’s real-time, predictive analytics identity verification and fraud prevention solution with Middesk’s business entity verification technology to enhance the ability of B2B companies to accurately verify their customers. The collaboration marks the first time that two innovators in the Know Your Business (KYB) and Know Your Customer (KYC) space have created an integrated solution for end-to-end business verification.
“With our partnership, B2B companies will achieve an incremental lift in their business due to Socure’s industry-leading accuracy and coverage of our identity verification and fraud risk prediction solutions,” Socure CEO and founder Johnny Ayers said. “This accuracy leads to the auto-approval of more good consumers and creates increased conversion rates and a higher assurance of onboarding trustworthy business customers.”
The integration will help B2B companies verify not only the details of new business customers such as name, address, and tax ID, but also the personal details for that business’ beneficial owners. The addition of Socure’s digital identity verification and fraud platform will ease and streamline the process through which Middesk customers can authenticate the associated beneficial owners of the businesses they register and onboard. The partnership could be a major boon for businesses in regulated industries – including banks, financial services companies, and insurance companies – that require a high degree of business identity verification. The collaboration also should prove helpful to entities such as B2B marketplaces that serve gig economy businesses and entrepreneurs who often have smaller or more incomplete data footprints that can make KYB more challenging.
Middesk co-founder and CEO Kyle Mack said that the partnership would help Middesk customers who are eager to tackle the issues of identity verification. “Customers can now leverage the Socure integration to validate personal attributes of beneficial owners,” Mack said. “Additionally, Socure delivers key risk insights that determine the likelihood that someone’s identity is legitimate, and applicants are who they claim to be, which provides even more value to our customers in uncertain, but growing market conditions.”
Founded in 2012 and making its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateFall, Socure has grown into a leading identity verification solution provider. With more than 1,000 financial institutions, government agencies, and enterprises using on the company’s verification technology, Socure reported in May that it had reached record customer growth of 236%, and currently includes companies such as EarnUp and fellow Finovate alum Sezzle among its financial services clients. Also in May, Socure introduced new Chief Financial Officer Krish Venkataraman.
“I’ve long had the sense that, no matter what type of business you’re in, solving for identity verification was critical to operating in the next phase of the internet,” Venkataraman said when his appointment was announced. “What’s really becoming clear is that the line of demarcation between a real identity and how that identity operates in the digital world no longer exists. A person’s identity is how they access everything they want and need to do, and today, those things almost all happen online.” Venkataraman called Socure “the identity verification layer for the Internet.”
Headquartered in New York City, Socure has raised more than $646 million in funding. The company’s investors include Accel, T. Rowe Price, and ff Venture Capital.
“With this additional capital, we will substantially increase our level of commercial velocity and intensity in solving complex customer and societal problems, while maintaining our Day 0 founder’s mentality and continuing to attract the market’s best product, data science, and engineering minds to join our already incredibly talented team,” Socure founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said.
The Series E was led by Accel – along with funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates. New investors Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global joined existing investors Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Sorenson Ventures in the round, as well. Socure’s total equity funding stands at $647 million.
The investment gives Socure the highest valuation of any private company in the identity verification market. The company’s identity verification and fraud-fighting platform Socure ID+ has gained meaningful traction in the enterprise, with four of the five largest banks and seven of the 10 largest credit card issuers embracing the technology. Add to this a host of major fintechs, Buy Now Pay Later firms, investment management companies, and crypto exchanges. Socure has enjoyed 5x year-over-year bookings growth, more than 2x year-over-year customer growth, and five consecutive quarters of record year-over-year revenue growth.
Additionally, Socure achieved a net retention rate of 179% which the company said was due to “near-zero attrition” as Socure’s enterprise customers deployed multiple Socure solutions across divisions at an increasing rate. The result has been to make Socure an all-in-one platform for fraud prevention, KYC, AML, and document verification in the enterprise.
“When you’re a market leader, you move from attacking and replacing the incumbents repeatedly as you earn your seat at the table to truly being a strategic partner to many of the best companies in the world,” Ayers said.
Socure will use the new capital to further invest in product innovation, enter new markets such as telehealth, gaming, e-commerce marketplaces, and the public sector, and add talent to the Socure team – especially in the areas of product development, data science, and engineering. The company also will use the investment to enhance both its customer consortium data and automated ID+ platform to address payment and first party fraud as effectively as it currently combats third party and synthetic fraud.
Founded in 2012 and making its Finovate debut a year later at FinovateFall, Socure has had a busy autumn in 2021, launching new fraud prevention solutions and adding a new Chief People Officer in September, plus reaching a 750 customer milestone early in October. Also in October, Socure announced a major commitment to deliver identity verification solutions to the public sector market, appointing Matt Thompson as its new General Manager of Public Sector Solutions.
“Many agencies lack the industry experience required to effectively manage identity verification and reduce fraud losses in the midst of accelerated digital transformation due to the pandemic,” Thompson explained. “Furthermore, the gaps within legacy identity solutions were exposed leaving numerous eligible people waiting extended periods of time for their benefits while enabling fraudsters to manipulate these same benefits at an unprecedented level. We are committed to solving this challenge for government agencies.”
Digital trust and identity verification innovator Socure announced today that it has received a strategic investment from Capital One Ventures, Capital One Financial Corporation’s venture capital division. The amount of the investment was not disclosed, but it adds to the $196 million the company has raised to date. This sum includes a $100 million Series D round in March, which gave Socure more than a billion dollar valuation.
The company plans to use the additional financing to fuel its expansion across a range of verticals including financial services, healthcare, e-commerce, on-demand services and online gaming. Named one of America’s Best Startup Employers by Forbes for the past two years in a row, Socure will also use the funding to help add to its workforce.
“We are thrilled to add Capital One to our expanding roster of strategic investors. We were fortunate to have met the venture as well as fraud and identity teams early on in Socure’s journey,” Socure co-founder and CEO Johnny Ayers said. “We admired their focus and discipline as a data science and analytics-driven company and channeled that as we built Socure.”
A Finovate alum since 2013, Socure offers a real-time predictive analytics platform that applies artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques with trusted online/offline data intelligence from email, phone, address, IP, device, velocity, and the broader internet to verify identities in real time. Socure’s ID+ product suite offers passive identity verification and fraud detection solutions in addition to a physical document verification solution, DocV, which provides enterprises with the ability to verify the authenticity of government-issued IDs while accurately associating that ID document with other, relevant PII. The addition of DocV gave the platform the ability to provide a wider range of identity verification methods all in a single, integrated solution and API. Socure notes that it achieves fraud capture rates of 90%, increases in auto enrollment by up to 94%, and an 8x to 10x reduction in false positives.
