Orange Ventures and LoftyInc back Youverify's seed round extension
Youverify, a San Francisco-based identity verification company helping African banks and start-ups automate know your customer (KYC) and other compliance procedures, has secured a $1 million seed round extension. After initially raising $1.5 million in 2020, the company extended the seed round, raising an additional $1 million, bringing the total amount raised to $2.5 million. Orange Ventures and LoftyInc Capital co-led the round with additional investment from Octerra Capital, Plug & Play Ventures, Syntax Ventures, HTTP Investors, Afer Group and Fronesyz Capital.
Youverify will use the capital to accelerate its growth plans with expansion into new markets and industries. The company recently expanded into Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. Over the next 18 months, Youverify will continue to grow its footprint to cover 30 countries. Moreover, the company will develop new automated compliance products for the gaming, travel, healthcare and telecommunications industries.
Fintech startups and financial service institutions are subject to strict regulations including anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorism financing (CTF) in their countries of operations. This year, transactions worth $116 billion will be made through digital payment channels, requiring stringent measures to prevent identity theft and fraud.
Youverify’s proprietary technology, the Youverify OS (YVOS), provides a single platform for automating due diligence. YVOS combines risk and compliance management with Youverify’s core identity verification platform to provide fintech companies with a comprehensive and enterprise-grade compliance solution. With Youverify’s vFORM, a low and no-code tool, businesses can create a custom process for onboarding new customers using a drag and drop builder.
“We have seen the huge potential in the fragmented regtech market across Africa. We’re kicking off plans to plug in the gaps by expanding our marketplace to emerging and existing start-ups and traditional financial services companies across the continent. Our unique approach to providing compliance solutions gives us a strategic advantage due to our enterprise platform that goes the extra mile by helping businesses automate compliance workflow beyond basic identity verification,” said Dr. Gbenga Odegbami, Youverify CEO and co-founder.
“The number of financial service companies and platforms that are embedding financial services into their products will continue to grow in sub-Saharan Africa. All those companies will need to onboard customers and go through KYC, AML processes using a flexible solution such as Youverify. What is at stake now is to go beyond Nigeria. I am happy to see new investors joining the journey and proud to support this team since their seed round,” said Gregoire de Padirac, Orange Ventures’ principal.
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