Youverify adds $1M to seed funding round to tackle fraud with biometrics

Lagos and San Francisco–based biometric identity verification firm Youverify has secured a $1 million seed round extension bringing its total seed raised from $1.5m in 2020 to $2.5 million.

The round was led by existing investors VCs Orange Ventures and LoftyInc Capital with participation from  Octerra Capital, Plug & Play Venture, Syntax Ventures, HTTP Investors, Afer Group, and Fronesyz Capital.

The company writes in a LinkedIn announcement that the funds will go towards product improvement and development, talent acquisition, and expansion within Africa.

The news was reported by TechCrunch, which recently interviewed Youverify’s founder and CEO Gbenga Odegbami.

“The way our customers see us is that we help them automate their [know-your-customer] (KYC) and compliance issues,” Odegbami told TechCrunch.

The company does so by providing address and identity verification with credit history and face biometrics through application programming interfaces (APIs).

Additionally, Odegbami said Youverify started working with fintech companies in 2021 and is now in partnerships with two-thirds of Nigeria’s commercial banks, including Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, and Fidelity Bank.

To expand the company’s operations further, the company also recently launched its proprietary technology Youverify OS (YVOS).

The solution is reportedly designed to provide due diligence automation capabilities risk, alongside compliance management and identity verification platform features.

Moving forward Odegbami told TechCrunch that Youverify intends to expand to over 30 countries over the next 18 months and increase the number of IDs it can verify from 400 million to 2 billion.

Biometric solutions similar to the ones developed by Youverify are currently on the rise across Africa, as shown by the partnership between NanoB&K and LoginID in February.

Article Topics

Africa  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  funding  |  identity verification  |  investment  |  KYC  |  Nigeria  |  Youverify