• Cryptocurrency
  • Earnings
  • Enterprise
  • About TechBooky
  • Submit Article
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact Us
TechBooky
  • African
  • AI
  • Metaverse
  • Gadgets
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
  • African
  • AI
  • Metaverse
  • Gadgets
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
TechBooky
Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Home African

Nigeria’s Identitypass Gets $2.8m In Seed Funding For Identity Verification API

Paul Balo by Paul Balo
May 12, 2022
in African, Start Up
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Lagos-based Identitypass has secured $2.8 million in a seed funding round led by MaC Venture Capital. Y Combinator, True Capital Fund, Soma Capital, Sherwani Capital, etc., were also participants in the funding round.

Identitypass provides identity verifications and KYC information for businesses, fintech, e-commerce companies, etc. Its solution helps the aforementioned businesses to tackle crime, online theft, etc., by verifying the information of people that come onto their platform.

The seed funding round follows months after graduating from Y Combinator’s accelerator program and just a few months after raising a pre-seed investment of $360,000. The total amount thus raised so far by Identitypass is $3.1 million. With the new funding, the startup plans to expand its existing infrastructure, ramp up efforts around compliance, security, and data, hire new talents in addition to its 14-man team, and enter new countries in Africa.

The need for startups like Identitypass cannot be overemphasized because businesses are at the risk of losing millions of dollars every year to cybercrime. Currently, about $1 trillion is being lost every year to cybercrime, so KYC checks and identity confirmations of users are a need for businesses, especially those operating in the digital space.

Originally, Identitypass wasn’t built to verify people or combat cybercrime. According to CEO Lanre Ogungbe, the startup was built as a platform where consumers can use their biometrics and cards to make payments, but the numerous challenges the team encountered made them decide to become what they are today.  “At the point of when we’re building it (referring to the payment solution), there was no one in the market that had the kind of infrastructure that we wanted to use. We wanted to build a substitute for authentication. That was it,” the CEO said.

In the process of building what it is today, Identitypass’ team reached out to a handful of fintech companies making research on how they can combat crimes relating to fraud and identity issues. The team concluded that many of these fintechs do not have good KYC processes and mostly required not so much information to bring them onto their platforms. “We knew it would never work for us,” the CEO said adding that “Today, we have basic authentication using OTPs or a four-pin password, but by starting Identitypass, we wanted to introduce more authentication options into the market.”

Identitypass was founded in 2021 by Lanre Ogungbe with Niyi Adegboye and Ebuka Obi. The startup acquired various licenses as well as certifications to be able to carry checks on people. Today 200 businesses across education, e-commerce, mobility, and fintech existing in Nigeria, the UK, the US, and India, use the startups’ 18 data points solution to verify the identities of their customers.

“The core of our business is making it possible for digital businesses in Africa to easily verify and validate that their customers are who they say they are. Before we came into the market, someone could pick another person’s BVN and use that to assess a loan facility. But with technologies like ours, we can do this kind of verification to tell that the person submitting the BVN, phone number or bank details isn’t the owner,” the CEO explained.

The startup has processed over 1 million separate verifications since it went into business using government-approved IDs, debit cards, Bank Verification Numbers (BVNs), vehicle plate numbers, tax history, etc. It charges between 10 to 20 cents on each verification depending on the number of points that a business wants to connect to.

The startup recently launched a SaaS platform in addition to its APIs. According to CEO Lanre Ogungbe, this will give the startup an advantage over its rivals such as Dojah and Smile Identity. “That makes us different from anyone in the market because today, we’re the only providers of both an API and a SaaS-based solution for verification. To add, we have more data points than most providers in the region. And the way we use data and biometrics for verification, no other player in the market uses it that way,” he said.

The startup wants to become a market leader and a big name on the continent. It plans on expanding into other African territories and working with more regulatory agencies.  “We will not just stop there. We would also work with many regulatory agencies to develop a top-notch data security framework across Africa. Lastly, we will work with multiple alliances and form more formidable and strategic partnerships across different countries in Africa,” CEO Lanre Ogungbe said.

 

Source: TechBooky Business

Related Posts:

  • Lagos-based Identity Verification Company Youverify Gets $1 Million In Seed Extension Round To Fuel Its Expansion Across Africa
    Lagos-based Identity Verification Company Youverify…
  • Youverify-team-photo-2022
    Nigeria's Youverify Gets $1m In Seed Extension Round…
  • Fintech Playter Secures $55 million to scale its…
  • Nigeria's Klasha Gets $2.1 Million In Additional Seed Funding To Scale Its Products For Cross-border Commerce In Africa
    Nigeria's Klasha Gets $2.1 Million In Additional…
  • LF_logo_color_rgb
    Nigeria’s Pastel, A Bookkeeping And Digital Platform…
  • Duplo, A Nigerian B2B Payments Startup Digitilizing…
  • Sudan-based Fintech Bloom Secures $6.5 Million Seed Funding
    Sudan-based Fintech Bloom Secures $6.5 Million Seed Funding
  • Maplerad, A Nigerian Banking-as-a-service Startup, Secures Seed Funding Of $6 Million In  A Round Led By Valar Ventures
    Maplerad, A Nigerian Banking-as-a-service Startup,…

Discover more from TechBooky

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Tags: fundingIdentitypasssecuritystartup
Paul Balo

Paul Balo

Paul Balo is the founder of TechBooky and a highly skilled wireless communications professional with a strong background in cloud computing, offering extensive experience in designing, implementing, and managing wireless communication systems.

BROWSE BY CATEGORIES

Receive top tech news directly in your inbox

subscription from
Loading

Freshly Squeezed

  • 5yrs After Its Last Appearance, Fortnite is Back in The US App Store May 21, 2025
  • Nigeria-Meta Standoff Threatens Small Business Operations May 21, 2025
  • Galileo Wants “Payment Switch” to Strengthen Bill Pay May 21, 2025
  • MTN Nigeria Sues Banks for ₦6B in SleekChip Technologies Debt Case May 21, 2025
  • Nigeria to Release First AI Guidelines Within Weeks, Says Alake May 20, 2025
  • Google Secures Major Solar Deal for Data Centre Power May 20, 2025

Browse Archives

May 2025
MTWTFSS
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
262728293031 
« Apr    

Quick Links

  • About TechBooky
  • Advertise Here
  • Contact us
  • Submit Article
  • Privacy Policy

Recent News

5yrs After Its Last Appearance, Fortnite is Back in The US App Store

5yrs After Its Last Appearance, Fortnite is Back in The US App Store

May 21, 2025
Nigeria-Meta Standoff Threatens Small Business Operations

Nigeria-Meta Standoff Threatens Small Business Operations

May 21, 2025
Galileo Wants “Payment Switch” to Strengthen Bill Pay

Galileo Wants “Payment Switch” to Strengthen Bill Pay

May 21, 2025
MTN Declares Core Infrastructure Secure After Cyberattack

MTN Nigeria Sues Banks for ₦6B in SleekChip Technologies Debt Case

May 21, 2025
Nigeria to Release First AI Guidelines Within Weeks, Says Alake

Nigeria to Release First AI Guidelines Within Weeks, Says Alake

May 20, 2025
Google Secures Major Solar Deal for Data Centre Power

Google Secures Major Solar Deal for Data Centre Power

May 20, 2025
  • Login

© 2021 Design By Tech Booky Elite

Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
  • African
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Gadgets
  • Metaverse
  • Tips
  • About TechBooky
  • Advertise Here
  • Submit Article
  • Contact us

© 2021 Design By Tech Booky Elite

Discover more from TechBooky

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.Ok