Unico acquires biometrics provider Valida, gaining entry into Argentina market

Unico has announced it signed a definitive agreement to acquire Valida, “an Argentine biometric identity verification platform with an established presence in the country’s banking sector.”

Unico is pursuing consolidation across Latin America, building on flagship operations in Brazil and Mexico as well as a strong client base in other countries throughout the region. The firm outlines its “hypergrowth strategy,” of which the Valida acquisition is an example: “entering a key market by absorbing an already established infrastructure.”

“With Valida holding a 50 percent market share in the Argentine banking sector, Unico secures immediate penetration and the capacity to scale rapidly to serve regional clients,” the announcement says. That said, Unico also plans to establish its own office in Argentina to serve as a hub of technical talent in the region.

Luis Felipe Monteiro, Unico’s CEO for LATAM, says the move is partly a response to the acceleration of AI-assisted fraud across the region. The firm recently published the Identity Fraud Intelligence Report in partnership with Liminal, showing that sophisticated fraud combining deepfakes, video injection and physical manipulation already accounts for 23 percent of attacks recorded globally, and that the cost of fraud attacks continues to drop. In Latin America, sophisticated fraud attempts grew 1,000 percent in 2025, confirming it as a global hotspot for identity fraud.

“This is a moment when fraud is advancing at an accelerated pace across the region, and this acquisition consolidates our leadership in Argentina as one more natural step in our expansion strategy across Latin America,” Monteiro says. “We recognize the strength of Argentina’s financial sector, and we’re here to build alongside those who have already earned the trust of banks and businesses in the country, adding scale and local presence.”

Founded in 2007 in São Paulo, Unico now handles identity verification for four of Brazil’s five largest banks and today operates in more than 20 countries, including a new office in Silicon Valley.

The Valida acquisition follows Unico’s 2024 acquisitions of Trully.AI in Mexico and Oz Forensics in the United Arab Emirates, and OwnID in Israel in 2025. The firm has also seen an upward trend in revenue and volume, posting a 41 percent increase in consolidated global revenue year-over-year for the first two quarters of 2026, with transaction volume on the platform growing 68 percent over the period.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  Argentina  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  Unico  |  Valida