Selfie biometrics providers partner to reach new geographies, sign up payments networks

IDnow and Blinking have each signed deals to bring their selfie biometrics to new geographies, and Thirdfort, Onfido, Veridas, Beyon Connect and iDenfy have added to their customer portfolios as the market continues its rapid expansion.

The growth in overall digital identity solutions will continue at a 14.2 percent compound annual growth rate to reach $40.35 billion by 2028, according to a report from QYResearch, driven by biometrics use for customer access to payment systems and financial services, and to secure work-related information. The continued integration of biometrics into smartphones is also identified as an ongoing boost to the market.

A new entrant may be joining the market as well, with Arbor Steel picking up £200,000 (approximately US$260,000) in pre-seed funding to bring its ‘digital identity citadel,’ which uses biometrics and document checks for user authentication, to market, according to Private Equity Wire.

The service is offered to consumer and SMEs with a starting price of £8.33 a month. The funding follows a £100,000 grant from InnovateUK.

Partnerships to reach new markets

IDnow has struck a professional services deal with Las Vegas-based casino gaming industry consultancy SCCG Management to bring its remote customer onboarding with selfie biometrics to the Brazilian and Canadian markets.

“We have been admirers of the work IDnow has done in the identity verification space for the casino gaming industry,” comments SCCG Management Founder and CEO Stephen Crystal. “Their end-to- end technology platform fits within our client partner ecosystem perfectly, and we look forward to the opportunity to share this high value solution to operators in Brazil and Canada.”

In addition to meeting security and regulatory standards with its identity proofing platform, IDnow provides the My IDnow portal for deep analytics and identity-related insights, according to the announcement.

Blinking, meanwhile, has signed an agreement with certification authority (CA) and trusted service provider (TSP) Inception to bring its customer onboarding and digital identity solutions to financial institutions in Serbia and the Western Balkan region.

The Blinking Identify platform provides a range of online products for customer onboarding, including multi-factor authentication, KYC and AML tools. Blinking says its qualified electronic delivery and qualified electronic certificate solutions combine with Inception’s qualified timestamp and remote signing services for an end-to-end legal and regulatory compliance solution.

“Qualified delivery is an important aspect in any regulated business.” says Blinking Co-founder and COO Milos Milovanovic. “When sending sensitive documents to customers, it is critical to not only confirm receipt but also to ensure that the document ends up in the appropriate hands. Blinking and Inception will offer their clients the ability to confirm the identity of the receiving party. We will take things even further and enable complete remote contracting using Video Identification. This service will transform the financial institutions and other industries and will bridge the gap between institutions and their online customers.”

The joint solution is now available, and has a very short time to deployment, the partners say.

Customer wins for financial services, carsharing

Thirdfort’s document scanning, selfie biometrics and artificial intelligence-based checks have been chosen by both poweredbypie and PSG for know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML) and Source of Funds verifications when users search for properties. Conveyancer Knight Frank has also selected Thirdfort to securely onboard clients to its residential property sales network.

The two property search providers, both owned by Dye & Durham, will use Thirdfort’s proprietary risk engine to identify fraud and money laundering risks more quickly and accurately, according to the announcement. Knight Frank will use Thirdfort’s risk engine in its onboarding process for AML protection.

“Following these new integrations with poweredbypie and PSG, Thirdfort is now available to thousands of conveyancing and law firms from within a system they already use,” says Matt Berry head of Partnerships at Thirdfort.

“We’ve developed our integration-first strategy to ensure we are helping professionals meet the growing regulatory burden. What’s more, by partnering with innovative legal and property software providers such Dye & Durham we can enhance the value of both platforms.”

Thirdfort’s app has been downloaded by 500,000 people in the UK over the past two and a half years.

Moneytrans has chosen Onfido’s biometric onboarding technology to speed up KYC checks and unify its digital identity processes for customers in Belgium and the Netherlands, according to a company announcement.

“We needed to integrate a top-tier digital onboarding solution and after careful consideration, it became clear that the best choice was with Onfido,” states Moneytrans COO Miguel Fernández-Rosas. The company’s CPO Paola Luyo says Onfido’s team assisted with the integration process for fast and easy deployment.

Moneytrans has more than 10 million customers for its remittance services.

Electric car-sharing service Zity has signed an agreement to use selfie biometrics from Veridas for new customer onboarding to reduce application processing time from the 24 hours it previously took. The application process can now be completed immediately.

The biometric onboarding service is now available in Madrid, and will soon roll out in Paris and Lyon.

Beyon Connect will provide its OneID and OneBox solutions to Bahraini digital payments processor Benefits for digital identity and qualified electronic signing services.

Benefit will deploy Beyon Connect’s OneID mobile application for iOS and Android to enable remote customer onboarding with face biometrics and liveness checks for KYC compliance, according to the announcement.

“We are proud to collaborate with Benefit, a trusted and respected Bahrain finance and technology partner, to deliver additional value and powerful extended use cases to OneID and OneBox,” says Christian Rasmussen, CEO of Beyon Connect. “Our highly secure digital ID and communication platform is built on transparency, privacy, and trust, so we see real synergy with the value and technologies Benefit brings to the table.”

iDenfy will provide its identity verification technology to help prevent fraud against the network of New Zealand-based online payments and currency exchange company RBFC Global.

“Today, it’s no longer enough to use simple fraud prevention methods. That’s why we’re proud to partner with iDenfy. They were able to offer us multi-layer security that is also simple to implement and use,” comments Daniel Ramirez, chief compliance officer at RBFC Global Limited.

Article Topics

AML  |  Beyon Connect  |  biometrics  |  Blinking  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  iDenfy  |  identity verification  |  IDnow  |  KYC  |  onboarding  |  Onfido  |  selfie biometrics  |  Thirdfort  |  Veridas