Online identity verification platform Trulioo has closed a $394 million series D round of funding at a $1.75 billion valuation, coming at a time when businesses across the spectrum have had to embrace digital transformation due to the global pandemic.

Similar to how the need for electronic signatures has skyrocketed due to pretty much every activity going online over the past year, companies have also had to rapidly transition to technologies that allow them to verify that their users are who they say they are, without relying on in-person meetings. This is particularly pertinent in highly-regulated industries such as financial services.

Verify me

Founded in 2011, Vancouver, Canada-based Trulioo offers various tools for companies to verify their online users, including general identity verification which may check a user’s data against third-party data sources such as a credit bureau, government database, or mobile carrier.

“We help enterprises verify and authenticate users online to enable swift and secure digital onboarding, and in accordance with compliance requirements,” Trulioo chief operating officer Zac Cohen told VentureBeat.

The company also offers document verification, allowing allows businesses to easily match users’ document data with myriad databases and data vendors from around the world. So, a bank that wishes to onboard new customers by checking their ID remotely, can do so by baking Trulioo’s technology into their own apps.

Perhaps the biggest challenge that companies face in terms of verifying users lies in the fact that every country has its own unique set of rules and regulations, while documents vary from location to location. Trulioo’s API gives companies a direct artery to a global ID verification system.

Although it doesn’t divulge specific customers, it does claim to work with some of the “largest names in financial services, payments, online marketplaces, and crypto exchanges.”

“Look for an app on your phone, and they are likely a customer,” Cohen said. “The reality today is that enterprises operate in a borderless digital economy where consumers want to access services from anywhere in the world. They need an identity verification platform that can scale similarly alongside.”

Prior to now, Trulioo had raised around $81 million, and with its latest $394 million cash injection which was led by growth equity firm TCV, the company is well-financed to capitalize on the burgeoning identity verification needs of businesses across industries.

Big market

The identity verification market was pegged as a $7.6 billion industry in 2020, a figure that’s anticipated to more than double within four years as companies combat the growing scourge of identity theft and fraud which has reportedly accelerated due to the pandemic.

As such, there has been a flurry of activity across the identity verification space of late, with rivals Jumio and Persona raising $150 million and $50 million respectively in the past few months, while Onfido locked down $100 million in funding last year. And in the acquisitions realm, we’ve seen Mastercard dole out $850 million for Ekata, while IDnow and Acuant have both made moves in the space this year.

“Online fraud is growing at alarming rates, and the regulatory environment is changing constantly,” Cohen said. “Anyone who has a stake in onboarding users and transacting online needs to be both incredibly strategic and judicious about how they approach identity verification, as bad actors continue to grow more and more sophisticated.”