YouVerify expands to Kenya, KYC platform updates from Shufti, Veridas, Keesing

Nigerian biometric identity verification provider YouVerify has launched in Kenya.

The Lagos and San Francisco–based regulatory technology firm is also eyeing expansion into other parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia and Egypt.

The news comes after YouVerify recently secured a $1 million seed round extension, earmarked for African expansion, as well as to support product improvement and development as well as talent acquisition.

The round, which brought its total seed funding from $1.5 million 2020 to $2.5 million, included existing investors Orange Ventures and LoftyInc Capital as well as  participation from  Octerra Capital, Plug & Play Venture, Syntax Ventures, HTTP Investors, Afer Group, and Fronesyz Capital.

The company, which automates KYC and compliance for customers, recently told Techcrunch that its client base includes two-thirds of Nigeria’s commercial banks, as well as Standard Chartered, Standard Bank, and Fidelity Bank.

According to a recent interview with TechTrends Media, YouVerify’s CEO said the firm’s headcount has recently reached 70, following rapid expansion in recent months.

KYC firms announce fresh plans

But that’s not all the recent KYC news, Veridas has expanded its document coverage to include “all IDs, driving licenses, and passports from all ICAO countries.”

In total, this includes 7,000 new documents according to the firm.

The firm also claims to have introduced significant improvements to its ID Document Verification engine, which includes enhanced document reading capabilities for countries like France, Australia, and Bosnia, which it says will result in higher conversion rates.

In addition, the firm claims it has increased its spoofing measures, making its platform more resilient against photo replacement, print, and replay attacks, as well as improving its document auto-classification.

Veridas also says it has improved its Sanctions & Adverse Media list, making it more adaptable, and adding a function so users can determine how closely they want their searches to follow the specified list.

Shufti Pro, another identity verification service provider offering KYC, KYB, KYI, AML, biometric verification, and OCR solutions, has updated its KYC offering as per a recent announcement.

The firm claims it will give firms a guarantee of a 100% increase in onboarding rate for businesses via “using AI algorithms to cross-check user data and identify fraudulent activities.”

Keesing Technologies, another provider of identity verification solutions, has launched Keesing Data as A Service for ID documents.

The solution looks to help organizations use ID document reference data to improve identity verification during the KYC process.

Article Topics

African startups  |  biometrics  |  document verification  |  identity verification  |  Keesing Technologies  |  KYC  |  selfie biometrics  |  Shufti  |  Veridas  |  Youverify