Brazilian digital ID firm Unico acquires Oz Forensics and Trully.AI

Brazilian digital identity unicorn Unico has announced more acquisitions. The selfie biometrics provider, backed by the likes of Goldman Sachs, SoftBank and General Atlantic, announced its purchase of Dubai-based deepfake fraud prevention company Oz Forensics and Mexican digital identity verification startup Trully.AI.

The new acquisitions are aimed at building a global identity validation infrastructure, according to the company’s new LATAM CEO Rodrigo Magalhães. The company did not disclose the value of the deals.

“Unico has been growing in an accelerated, solid way and has enormous potential ahead of it,” says Magalhães. “The acquisitions of OZ Forensics and Trully seal this and will allow us to take new flights, in addition to offering all the expertise we have built working in Brazil in favor of this construction of a global identity validation infrastructure.”

Unico has been working on the company’s internationalization since February 2024, CEO Sergio Chaia told Brazil Journal.

Previously known as Acesso Digital, the company has been developing facial recognition solutions, including its major revenue-generator biometric authentication software Check.

During its latest Series D round led by Goldman Sachs in 2022, the digital identity company was valued above US$2.5 billion.

The company has been on an acquisition spree, including companies such as MakroSystems, Meerkat, Vianuvem, CredDefense and SkillHub.

Its latest addition, Oz Forensics is present in 20 countries and has over 50 customers and around 50 employees.

The deepfake fraud prevention provider, with an address in Almaty, Kazakhstan, is collaborating with several Kazakhstani banks, as well as U.S.-based AI company Mototech, Chilean biometrics firm RobleLabs and Spanish digital identity company Bewor Tech. The company was founded in 2017 by Russians Artem Gerasimov and Svetlana Efimova.

Unico has already incorporated some of Oz Forensics’s software in its offerings. The main reason behind the acquisition is proprietary technology, Chaia said.

The acquisition of Trully.Ai, on the other hand, is aimed at strengthening Unico’s position in the Latin American market, Forbes Mexico reports.

“In Mexico, there is five times more fraud than in Brazil, which means a tremendous opportunity for us,” says Chaia.

The company, which will be renamed Trully by Unico, currently has 16 employees and serves around 30 clients in Mexico, mainly fintech. The startup was founded in 2022 and raised US$4.1 million in a seed funding round led by Costanoa Ventures.

Unico’s legal counsel in the latest transactions, for which terms were not disclosed, was Foley & Lardner LLP. The company has announced plans to make more acquisitions in the future.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Oz Forensics  |  selfie biometrics  |  Trully  |  Unico