Biometrics startups focused on customer transactions win seed funding

A pair of biometrics providers working on ways to expedite customer interactions, one with behavioral biometrics and one with facial verification, are reporting private placements.

Software-divination firm ForMotiv yesterday reported closing a $6 million seed round led by Vestigo Ventures. ForMotiv writes behavioral biometrics and predictive analytics algorithms for large insurance and financial firms.

The Philadelphia-based company recognizes the behaviors of people completing digital forms. Its algorithms reportedly predict what can be expected of people: delinquent payments, fraud, a profitable relationship — even abandonment of the digital application itself.

Real-time behavior recognition algorithms do it by measuring things including hesitancy and idle time, and monitoring corrections, copy-and-paste commands and other actions. No personally identifiable information is used.

Organizations using ForMotiv’s service can make the application easier, reducing friction, or make it more difficult, adding more friction, depending on what the software is picking up, according to the company.

In announcing the win, company executives said they have tripled their customer based and doubled their headcount. The funding will pay for new senior roles companywide.

In Indonesia, identity verifier Verihubs reported receiving $2.8 million in seed funding, according to TechCrunch. The startup’s algorithms also verify would-be customers’ phone numbers and backgrounds for financial companies.

Verihubs’ app tells a user to take a selfie and a photo of their government-issued ID and then performs facial verification and biometric liveness detection. The same biometric information is compared with government crime databases and telecommunications credit scores.

Insignia Venture Partners led the round with participation from Central Capital Ventura and Armand Ventures. A crowd of fellow startup entrepreneurs also kicked in.

Investment has been flooding into the biometrics and identity verification space this year, from established technology providers like ID.me to startups like VIDA.

Article Topics

behavioral biometrics  |  biometrics  |  fraud prevention  |  identity verification  |  secure transactions  |  Verihubs