Identity verification company raises $7m from Costanoa, CRE, others
Smile Identity, the company that enables ID verification and KYC compliance through artificial intelligence, has secured $7 million in series A funding.
The investment was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and CRE Venture Capital, along with participation from LocalGlobe, Intercept Ventures, Future Africa Ventures and angel investors from across Africa and around the world. Existing investors, including Khosla Impact, ValueStream Ventures, Beta Ventures, 500 Startups and Story Ventures also participated.
The round, which marks the largest investment into an identity verification company focused on Africa, brings Smile Identity’s total funding to over $11 million. The company plans to use the new funding to improve its services, expand across more markets, add support for more ID types and hire more engineers and support staff across Africa. In conjunction with this round, John Cowgill of Costanoa, will be joining Smile Identity’s board.
Smile Identity launched in 2017 with a mission to make it easy for Africans anywhere to quickly and easily prove their identity online, while providing startups and established enterprises with the tools and software they need to automate customer onboarding, verify identities and prevent fraud.
To standardise identity verification across the continent and provide a single solution for a new generation of African companies, Smile Identity works with local ID authorities and has built a platform that combines ID validation with proprietary face verification and liveness checks to support non-surveillance, consent-based access and financial inclusion. The company performs over 1 million identity checks every month across Africa and its software is used in banking, fintech, ride sharing, worker verification, public social welfare programs, and telecommunications. Its customers include payments companies like Paystack, Paga and Chippercash; neo-banks like Kudabank and Umba; traditional banks like Stanbic IBTC; cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Luno, and Paxful; and even supply-chain businesses like Twiga.
With subsidiaries, branch offices and engineers in Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Ghana, Rwanda, Uganda and counting, Smile Identity’s growing team is made up of people from 12 countries, including eight African nations.
Are you seeking private equity or venture capital investment to grow your company? Africa Private Equity News now offers you the opportunity to connect with investors backing African businesses. Contact us at editor@africaprivateequitynews.com for our rate card and more information.