Brazilian ride-hailing and delivery platform 99 has partnered with identity verification company Unico to use facial biometrics to validate the identities of its drivers, motorcyclists and couriers, both when they register and through periodic checks of partners who are already active on the platform.
According to 99, the measure covers a base of more than 2.5 million drivers registered on its app. The aim is to reduce attempts to misuse identities and to identify possible irregularities in partner accounts.
The company says registration will keep the same experience for users. The changes take place in 99’s internal verification systems, which will run continuous identity analysis to improve the accuracy of checks and detect irregularities throughout the period a professional remains active on the platform.
The partnership is part of a set of safety measures 99 has announced for 2026. The company plans to invest R$145 million in safety this year, a 16 percent increase over the R$125 million it says it spent on the area in 2024 and 2025 combined. 99 says its app now has more than 50 safety features for driver partners and passengers, including real-time trip monitoring, automatic audio recording, route sharing and an emergency button.
“The partnership with Unico reinforces our security structure with new layers of fraud prevention, which have become more sophisticated in recent years,” said Maria Marcolan, the senior manager responsible for safety prevention and perception at 99. She said the expansion of the company’s protection mechanisms follows the growth of its operation and the addition of new services to the app.
Unico’s head of product, Vinicius Miranda, said identity checks need to continue after registration. “With increasingly sophisticated fraud and the use of artificial intelligence to simulate real people, verifying who is on the other side needs to be a continuous process, not just a step at the entrance,” he said.
The deal extends an existing relationship. Unico’s technology is already used by 99Pay, the digital account linked to the 99 ecosystem, to authenticate its more than 28 million users with facial biometrics and liveness detection, which checks that the person authenticating is present at the time of the transaction.
Sources: 55content, Mobile Time
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team
