As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread rapidly across the world, more and more companies are facing supply chain disruptions, a plunge in customer demand, and much more. The major concern is that there is no clarity of how long the global crisis will last and there’s no cure for it as well. One thing that the global pandemic has resulted in is a digital push.
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Digital identity space on fire
The COVID-19 pandemic has already digitalised many things and the digital ID one such aspect. With millions of people across the world working from home, work is done remotely, conferences are taking place virtually, and people are signing documents electronically. And, digital identity is essential for all these as it is a way of authenticating that it is you.
Well, businesses are adopting touchless verification services that will contain the virus and urged to adhere to the KYC and AML regulations. Notably, KYC is the ideal way to tackle fraudsters in the current world scenario. During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, digital verification solutions that authenticate an identity sans any direct contact with the person are vital as these halt the spread of the virus.
There are global digital ID solutions that can be used to track the COVID-19 spread, monitor travel, and restrict the movement of infected people. However, such solutions have a lot of limitations as these will reveal a lot of control and information about citizens, which is a bad idea. Notably, there is a possibility to collect information and store the same in a privacy-preserving way.
European tech startups that received funding
Having detailed the role of digital identity and verification during the coronavirus outbreak, here is a list of digital identity startups in Europe that received funding recently.
ForgeRock (Norway)
Founder/s: Hermann Svoren, Lasse Andresen
Founded year: 2010
Funding: €127 million
Norwegian digital identity startup ForgeRock is an AI-driven platform empowering organisations to create amazing digital experiences for both consumer and workforce segments. It is providing services such as identity management including username and password creation, directory services, identity governance, privacy and consent gates.
A few days back, ForgeRock secured $93.5 million (nearly €86.3 million) Series E funding to continue expanding its product and take it to the next level as a business investing in R&D, cloud services, its Identity Cloud and general global business development. This funding round is led by Accenture Ventures, Riverwood Capital and previous investors such as Meritech Capital, Accel, Foundation Capital and KKR Growth.
Onfido (UK)
Founder/s: Eamon Jubbawy, Husayn Kassai, Ruhul Amin
Founded year: 2012
Funding: €192 million
London-based global identity verification and re-authentication service provider Onfido helps businesses identify their users using facial biometrics and Government IDs by developing AI to make sure their IDs are genuine and match the users presenting the same. Recently, Onfido secured $100 million (approx €92 million) funding led by global investment firm TPG Growth. Onfido will use this investment to accelerate its machine learning tech and expand into high-growth regions in Europe and South-East Asia. It also plans to continue its growth across North America by teaming up with Okta and ForgeRock.
Klippa (Netherlands)
Founder/s: Yeelen Knegtering, Bart-Jan Maatman, Robert-Jan Verheggen, Jeroen Bobbeldijk
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €1.4 million
Dutch digital receipt scaleup Klippa works with the intention to digitise and automate cumbersome document processing with technologies such as OCR and machine learning. It specialises in apps and software that improve administrative processes, expense processing, scanning receipts and invoices, data extraction and identity validation solutions.
Recently, Klippa secured €1.2 million funding from Bizcuit Group. With its tools, employees can complete their administrative tasks anywhere and anytime and let businesses work safely from home. Also, it will help them speed up administrative processes by 70%.
Yoti (UK)
Founder/s: Duncan Francis, Noel Hayden, Robin Tombs
Founded year: 2014
Funding: €18.3 million
London-based identity verification startup Yoti offers a digital identity platform and app. It lets people prove their age and purchase age-restricted goods. Also, they can sign documents online with verified digital identities and login securely to websites without the necessity to remember passwords all the time. Yoti secured £8 million (nearly €8.7 million) from its co-founder Robin Tombs, employees and existing private investors. It will be used to fuel the investment in product development, growth of its consumer network and expand its operations globally.
If you come across any other digital identity startup from Europe that has received funding of late, then do keep us posted on [email protected].
Main image picture credits: Klippa
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