Socure hires CFO with IPO experience

Sep 22, 2023, 4:56 pm EDT | Masha Borak

Socure is welcoming a new chief financial officer, Aaron Barfoot, and tipping what could be the next big biometrics stock launch.

Barfoot is joining the digital identity verification and fraud solutions company after serving as CFO at e-commerce fraud prevention firm Forter and as VP of finance at cloud computing provider Rackspace.

Socure says that its new CFO has experience with initial public offerings, including Rackspace’s IPO. He will be tasked with steering the company’s next phase of growth.

“Online identity verification has become more critical than ever as consumers have taken the most essential facets of their personal and work lives online,” Barfoot says. “From shopping on e-commerce sites to conducting virtual doctor visits and applying for home mortgages, fast and accurate identity verification is a core component of unlocking trusted transactions. Yet businesses and government agencies too often still rely on legacy identity verification methods, like checking Social Security numbers and credit histories to confirm people are who they claim to be.”

“With fraudsters becoming more sophisticated, Socure’s generative AI innovations are uniquely positioned to lead the next era of identity verification,” he adds.

Socure Founder and CEO Johnny Ayers says Barfoot’s experience and knowledge will be important as the company scales towards being publicly traded.

In the three years from 2019 to 2022, Socure has achieved a 376 percent revenue growth, the company says in a release. Last year, it added nearly 400 new customers with an 85 percent year-over-year increase in the average deal size. Recent deals include investment platform Public and digital lending company MeridianLink.

The growth also includes a push by Socure into selfie biometrics to enforce age restrictions, a project discussed with Biometric Update by Head of Document Verification Eric Levine in a recent interview.

This year was marked with the $70 million acquisition of ID document verification software maker Berbix and a $95 million, three-year credit facility with J.P. Morgan, Silicon Valley Bank and KeyBanc Capital Markets.

The company currently serves over 1,800 companies, including four of five of the largest banks. Its customers cover card issuers, fintechs, online gaming operators, government agencies, eCommerce marketplaces and other businesses.