The pandemic has forced many transactions to take place online. These days, you can buy everything from NFTs and groceries to cars and houses from your couch. While this shift may be convenient, it widens the door for fraud and security breaches.
And just as e-commerce and electronic payments are gaining more traction, so too are the tech startups aiming to ensure the space is safe one. Just a few weeks ago, security company ForgeRock made its public debut, and cloud identity unicorn Auth0 was purchased by industry leader Okta for a hefty $6.5 billion earlier this year.
The latest player making moves is Socure, which announced Tuesday it closed on a $450 million funding round led by Accel and T. Rowe Price, bringing its total valuation to a whopping $4.5 billion — about triple what it was just seven months ago after it raised a $100 million Series D. This makes Socure the highest-valued private company in the identity verification space, according to the company.
Founded in 2012, Socure has made a name for itself in the financial services space for its ability to detect and prevent identity fraud, counting top banks, card issuers and payroll providers among its more than 750 customers. Put simply, the platform uses machine learning, AI and predictive analytics to verify identities and reduce fraud, allowing companies to know if customers are real.
Now, the startup will use this fresh funding to continue building its platform and expanding into new markets — particularly in online gaming, cryptocurrency and e-commerce. It also plans to grow its team to keep up with its “record growth.” In just the last year, bookings have increased by 500 percent, and its customer base has grown by more than 220 percent.
Looking ahead, founder and CEO Johnny Ayers says Socure has secured its position as a market leader, and is now working to become a strategic partner with the companies it works with.
“With this additional capital, we will substantially increase our level of commercial velocity and intensity in solving complex customer and societal problems,” he said in a statement. “We will remain laser focused on our mission to verify 100 percent of good identities and eliminate fraud on the Internet while holding ourselves to the highest quality standards and cementing Socure as the top performing company in the industry.”
