Socure claims highest valuation in biometric IDV space with $450M funding round

The highest valuation of any private identity verification provider may now belong to Socure, after the company raked in $450 million in an oversubscribed funding round at a $4.5 billion valuation, based on the growth of its selfie biometrics checks for remote identity verification.

The company became a biometrics unicorn with a $100 million funding round at a $1.3 billion valuation in March.

The funding round, which Socure describes as part of a Series E transaction, was led by Accel and funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. New investors Bain Capital Ventures and Tiger Global joined the round, along with existing investors Commerce Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, and Sorenson Ventures.

Socure plans to invest more in product innovation to address identity verification challenges found anywhere in the digital consumer journey, according to the announcement, and make gains in new markets, such as the public sector. The company recently recruited Matt Thompson to lead its public sector efforts. The funds will also be used to attract and retain talent in product development, data science and engineering, and to scale up its customer consortium data and automated ID+ biometric platform.

Socure ID+ is used by four the five largest banks, seven of the 10 largest credit card issuers, and top providers in Buy Now, Pay Later, investment management, cryptocurrency and fintech services. The company says it is also picking up traction in telehealth, gaming and ecommerce.

Enterprises in all of these industries can reach new customers by addressing the 45 million U.S. citizens who do not have significant credit histories, including ‘thin-file’ 18 to 25-year-olds and immigrants.

“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,” states Socure Founder CEO Johnny Ayers. “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.”

“While Socure started out in the financial services vertical, it will not end there; the use cases for identity verification online stretch far and wide, and Socure is uniquely positioned to serve them,” says Bain Capital Ventures Partner Merritt Hummer. “Speaking to dozens of customers gave us conviction that Socure has earned their trust and become the default choice in this increasingly important market.”

The company launched a new end-to-end identity fraud prevention solution and reported a 500 percent increase in bookings on a year-over-year basis just weeks ago.

Socure says it provides the most comprehensive identity graph in the industry, with its identity resolution engine analyzing more than 8 billion records and over 700 million identities, good and bad. Auto-approval rates delivered with the company’s face biometrics can be up to 98 percent for ‘mainstream’ populations, and 94 percent for harder-to-identify groups.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  fraud prevention  |  funding  |  identity verification  |  investment  |  KYC  |  onboarding  |  Socure