IDnow and Wise AI raise funds for biometric video KYC expansions

IDnow will gain €15 million (US$18.1 million) in growth funding from The European Investment Bank (EIB), which will be used to support the company’s research and development into biometric video identity verification and international expansion.

IDnow specialises in secure, remote auto and video identification and electronic signature services. The platform uses artificial intelligence and facial recognition to authenticate individuals and checks security features on ID documents to reliably identify forged documents, in order for businesses to provide customer identification, contract conclusion, and manage transactions online. The technology helps customers meet know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.

“The flexible financing structure from the EIB will allow us to accelerate our investment in developing the platform to capitalise on these opportunities. The EIB is an ideal partner to support us in becoming Europe’s leading provider in identity verification,” says CFO of IDnow, Joe Lichtenberger.

With its Identity Verification-as-a-Service (IVaaS) platform and non-manipulable identity verification, IDnow uses the highest levels of data security. Meanwhile the platform can check identification documents of more than 7 billion customers from 193 different countries which can potentially be verified in real-time, the company website states.

The platform allows the identity flow to be adapted to different regional, legal and business requirements on a per use case basis and the video identification process has been patented by the EU.

EIB’s funding operation is part of the European Growth Finance Facility (EGFF), a product under the guarantee scheme of the European Fund for Strategic Investments (EFSI). European small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) often lack the opportunity to gain large financing options for growth investments. The benefit of EFSI in this specific case is the clear enhancement of the risk capacity of the Bank.

“The transaction is an excellent example of how the EU bank, with the support of the Investment Plan for Europe, can facilitate the development of innovation, in particular in sensitive policy areas such as anti-money laundering, counter terrorist financing and cybersecurity,” says EIB Vice-President Ambroise Fayolle, who is responsible for EFSI.

Wise AI raises funds for eKYC from VC with connection to coming digital bank

Malaysian eKYC startup Wise AI, meanwhile, has announced an investment from Sun SEA Capital, a venture capital firm backed by conglomerate Sunway.

The unspecified investment comes just as Sunway prepares to apply for a digital banking license, according to the announcement. Central bank Bank Negara Malaysia approved remote bank account opening with eKYC earlier this year, and the company notes that developing eKYC infrastructure is essential for digital banks.

“The need for digitalisation has been accelerated due to the pandemic, and we see the opportunities for WISE AI to become the market leader. Through Sun SEA Capital’s investment, WISE AI is able to explore collaboration opportunities leveraging Sunway’s vast ecosystem across 13 business divisions as well as Sunway City Kuala Lumpur as a living laboratory to potentially test, validate and implement new ideas and services as a launchpad for future growth,” states Raymond Hor, director of Sun SEA Capital.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  funding  |  identity verification  |  IDnow  |  investment  |  KYC  |  remote authentication  |  Wise AI