San Francisco-based identity infrastructure company Persona nabbed $50m in a Series B funding round led by Index Ventures with participation from existing investor Coatue.
In conjunction with the funding, Index Ventures’ partner Mark Goldberg will be taking a seat on Persona’s board of directors.
The funding round will support its ambition to provide the internet’s identity layer with its selfie biometrics and other technologies. Its ambition is further encouraged by Persona’s rapid growth with the company reporting ten times revenue growth year-on-year and triple its headcount. With customers including Square, Robinhood, Sonder, Brex, Udemy, Gusto, BlockFi, and AngelList, the company’s customer base grew by five times in the past year, it said.
While the identity verification industry initially focused on discrete applications like biometric KYC and AML checks but that no longer suits customer’s needs and customisable identity infrastructure is necessary for customers to get the full benefit from biometrics, it said.
Persona lets customers tailor the end-to-end identity verification process from collecting PII to automating decisions. The startup allows companies to access a range of verification options and data sources to build a personalised experience for their customers’ needs.
Commenting on the funding, Persona CEO Rick Song said, “With more transactions moving online, there are more unique business use cases for identity verification than ever before. The one-size-fits-all approach to identity is falling out of practice for good reason.
“The strategy your business needs for identity verification and management is going to be completely different if you’re a travel company verifying guests versus a delivery service onboarding new couriers versus a crypto company granting access to user funds.”
Song opined that businesses within the same industry should tailor the identity verification experience to each customer in order to stand out.
Adding to this, Goldberg said, “We’re at a unique tipping point where consumers are demanding personalized, effortless experiences while businesses need more layers of security. Existing all-in-one solutions lack the flexibility to adapt to the number and variety of use cases that are cropping up for businesses in various industries.”
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