Vancouver-based Trulioo, a startup that provides electronic identity and address verification for 5 billion people and 250 million business entities in 195 countries, today announced that it’s raised $70 million CAD (about $52.8 million) in funding. It included $60 million CAD in a series C round led by Goldman Sachs with participation from Citi Ventures, American Express, and Santander InnoVentures, as well as $10 million in unannounced follow-on funding from early investors Blumberg Capital and BDC Capital last year.
This latest raise brings Trulioo’s total raised to $96.6 million, which CEO Stephen Ufford said will enable the scaling up of operations in new markets and the addition of 70 people to its 130-strong workforce across offices in Vancouver, San Francisco, and Dublin.
“Today, families, businesses and entire economies are being powered by the global shift towards a truly digital economy, which is exciting but also opens up new forms of risk,” said Ufford. “We’re committed to leveraging technology to help our customers fight financial crime, money laundering and election fraud. I’d like to thank our investors for their trust in the work we are doing and for enabling us to push forward our solutions that transcend boundaries and channels, and which facilitate trusted transactions from anywhere, instantly.”
Trulioo was founded by Ufford and Tanis Jorge, who previously worked together on startups in the consumer credit industry. The pair set out to create an ID verification solution unconstrained by geography in 2011, addressing the estimated 220 million children whose births go unrecorded and the more than 2 billion people without a bank account.
To this end, Trulioo’s flagship product — GlobalGateway — is an API designed to help firms comply with anti-money laundering regulations in industries like ecommerce, payments, remittance, and financial services. On the business verification side of the equation, it delivers real-time access to company filings from official registers and runs checks on ultimate beneficial owners. Additionally, it attempts to uncover ownership structures by pulling from over 400 data sources, all of which Trulioo claims to have tested and vetted.
Trulioo’s GlobalGateway sources the active data available from dozens of mobile network operators to add extra layers of fraud prevention and authentication during customer onboarding. And it screens customers against watchlists, including law enforcement and governing regulatory bodies’ lists, while recording every identity verification match run for posterity.
The global identity and access market is anticipated to be worth $22.68 billion by 2025, and it’s occupied by a slew of well-funded providers. Onfido raised $50 million for its AI-powered solution in April, and Socure brought in $30 million in February. Other heavy hitters include Auth0 and Examity, which recently nabbed $103 million and $90 million in venture capital, respectively; AOptix; blockchain startup Authenteq; and the beleaguered Jumio.
But the competition isn’t giving investors like American Express Ventures managing director Dana Eli-Lorch second thoughts.
“Trulioo’s robust data and coverage is improving and streamlining identity and business verification for financial institutions globally. Leveraging external data sources for Know Your Customer (KYC) and fraud prevention when onboarding new customers and businesses is crucial,” said Eli-Lorch. “This allows for increased trust and safety in today’s global online ecosystem, solving a key pain point for the financial industry. We are pleased to continue to support Trulioo in its future growth.”
