Digital identity roundup: Socure taps India, Freja eID secures gaming, IDology expands, FCT joins Verified.Me

Socure is interested in expanding its digital ID verification services to the Indian fintech market, writes the Hindu Business Line, following industry reports estimating it will reach some $31 billion in 2020.

“The digital fintech movement has already started in India and we want to be part of that,” Socure CEO Tom Thimot told BusinessLine recently. “There is barely a new fintech in America that is not using Socure. Hopefully, we can be an enabler to help fintechs in India as well.”

Thimot trusts Socure will be part of the Indian marketing in 6-18 months, noticing increased interest in its commercial service already.

To verify identity in real time, Socure leverages artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms combined with data intelligence extracted from email, address, phone, IP and social media accounts. Socure has developed proprietary predictive analytics for banks and financial institutions to cut down the number of fraud attempts, optimize review processes and auto approval rates for new account opening.

Socure claims its verification platform ID+ has been implemented by more than 100 bans, lenders, brokers and payment providers around the world. Clients include three out of the top five US banks, two of the top global remittance providers and five of the top 10 card issuers as its customers.

The latest version of the ID+ Identity Verification Platform, version 3.0, includes sigma fraud scoring with machine learning and artificial intelligence, which the company says reduces manual review time by up to 90 percent, as well as document verification, which combines with biometric selfie and liveness detection, and KYC/CIP checks with proprietary ML techniques for auto-approval rates higher than 90 percent.

“We are in the game of volume. There are seven countries which have 80 per cent of the population and India is among the top three, and clearly the next investment,” said Johnny Ayers, co-founder and SVP, Socure, who was also part of the interaction.

With offices in San Francisco and San Diego, an Indian subsidiary in Chennai counting 30 employees was also opened in 2017.

“Globally, we have 125 people and our goal is to double our employee headcount to around 270, proportionately adding more employees in India,” Thimot said.

Plans for India include doubling the headcount to 75-100 employees by 2020, and expanding to other cities.

Socure sponsored the annual student tech fest Shaastra 2020, held at IIT-Madras last week.

“We place tremendous value on the education system here. We know we could get really good talent and one of the things we are proud of is we didn’t have even one attrition last year in Chennai,” Thimot said.

Included as one of America’s most promising AI companies in the Forbes AI50 list, Socure has raised some $60 million in capital investment from as Scale Venture Partners, Commerce Ventures and Flint Capital.

Videoslots adds Freja eID to secure gambling, compliance across Nordics

Online casino Videoslots has adopted the Freja eID tool across the Nordics to ensure safer gambling for its customers, the company announced. By adopting the Freja eID tool, Videoslots guarantees legal verification of all gambling requirements in the region, including checks on age and location, and optimizes the sign-up process for new players.

The app delivers more transparency on which data is stored and grants user access to their detailed history. All terms and conditions are presented in the app so the user can give consent for usage of personal data.

“We believe gambling should be safe and simple as well as fun. Freja eID will help us ensure we protect players and respect their data both on sign-up and while they enjoy our casino,” said Ulle Skottling, COO at Videoslots.com. “We invest a lot of time and resources into ensuring we not only comply with regulatory requirements but surpass them and this new tool will be implemented in order to attain the highest standards.”

“The agreement with Videoslots in the Nordics shows Freja eID can be the iGaming industry’s key to fast customer on-boarding, KYC, payments, increased customer interaction and global scalability,” added Johan Henrikson, CEO Verisec. “An e-ID is about much more than meeting regulatory requirements. It’s about the user experience and customer loyalty which is becoming increasingly important in a digitalised world.”

IDology delivers global capabilities, expands country portfolio

IDology’s ExpectID solution will offer global support and capabilities for an additional number of countries from North America, South America and Europe, which will now be able to verify and authenticate customers in real time, the company announced.

Companies use ExpectID to access international data sources that hold billions of public records and verify identity, and receive predictive information to reduce fraud. ExpectID simplifies onboarding and authentication for customers from multiple countries.

“Fraud and criminals operate across borders, so it’s only natural that identity verification solutions enable secure and friction-free cross-country capabilities,” said Chris Clark, CEO of GBG. “Today’s announcement is a compelling proof point that GBG is executing on our mission of helping any business, anywhere, reach and identify any customer across the world.”

McKinsey estimates the identity verification as a service industry will grow by $20 billion over the next two years, with a Total Addressable Market (TAM) growth of 9–15 percent annually.

“This is an exciting achievement that executes on our vision of driving revenue, removing friction and fighting fraud at a global scale,” said John Dancu, CEO of IDology. “Clients operating in multiple global regions can gain a competitive edge with more efficient customer onboarding, access to multiple smart layers of identity verification and point-and-click configuration across the world in one technology stack.”

“As more and more businesses participate in international commerce or have international customers, it is increasingly important to be able to validate individuals’ identities using multiple layers of attributes for account onboarding, fraud prevention and compliance purposes,” said Shirley Inscoe, senior analyst for Aite Group. “Providing a single platform that enables access to identity verification across multiple geographies enables companies to use it more easily and efficiently, and can save expense if a new implementation project can be avoided.”

IDology was added to the 2019 identity industry leader landscape by One World Identity.

FCT joins Verified.Me digital identity service

Federated identity and authentication company SecureKey Technologies announced today that FCT, a title insurance and real estate technology provider, has joined the Verified.Me network to help lending professionals complete identity validation for borrowers.

Verified.Me utilizes a trusted connection with existing personal identification details, such as a financial institution, to help verify identities, create accounts and access online services from other trusted organizations.

FCT will integrate the Verified.Me service into its Verify+ platform, a service for lending professionals to complete identity validation and secure document transmission for direct-to-consumer lending channels. Once a borrower has agreed to the identity validation process, they will be guided through a workflow that integrates Verified.Me, allowing lenders to collect and validate a borrower’s information from a trusted provider, such as their financial institution.

“We’re proud to support FCT’s adoption of digital identity in the real estate space and its commitment to support lenders through the identity verification process,” said Greg Wolfond, Founder and CEO, SecureKey Technologies. “The relationship between lenders and borrowers relies on the secure exchange of information. By welcoming FCT to the Verified.Me network, we are excited to streamline online identity verification and eliminate the inconvenience that borrowers previously experienced through requirements to physically visit a branch.”

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  Freja eID  |  identity verification  |  IDology  |  India  |  SecureKey  |  Socure