Selfie Onboarding Specialist Announces $20M Series A

Shufti Pro has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round, attesting to the considerable excitement about selfie-based remote onboarding technologies.

In a statement, Shufti Pro explained that the funding round was “led by Updata Partners”, though the company did not name any other participants in the round. For its part, Updata is a Washington-based, software-focused growth equity firm with a number of firms in its portfolio, including Toronto’s Altus Assessments, London’s Glassbox, and Chicago’s Jellyvision.

Commenting on the investment in Shufti Pro, Updata Partner Braden Snyder said the VC firm’s leadership “were impressed by the technology and commercial progress achieved by a bootstrapped business,” adding, “Shufti Pro is poised to build on this strong foundation and accelerate growth.”

Shufti Pro’s remote onboarding solution is designed to enable clients to perform remote identity verification of end users through a mobile device. The end user simply needs to upload images of an identity document and a selfie photo; then, Shufti Pro’s document recognition technology can verify the authenticity of the ID, while its facial recognition can match the document to the user’s face.

It’s an approach to identity verification that has proven increasingly popular in recent years, especially in the financial services sector. And Shufti Pro is certainly not the only provider of this kind of selfie-based solution, with rival firms like Onfido and Socure having recently reported surging revenues.

For its part, Shufti Pro seeks to differentiate itself with the flexibility and customizability of its solution, and with its adherence to the most stringent privacy and data protection regulations.

“Our configurable and fully automated platform allows customers to incorporate a frictionless verification process specific to their business objectives and provides the flexibility to address data privacy and security requirements, including the ability to deploy an on-premise solution,” explained Shufti Pro CEO Victor Fredung.

The company says that the capital from Updata’s investment will help to fuel its expansion into new markets, with Shufti Pro founder and CTO Shahid Hanif suggesting that the funding will also help to drive further R&D. “We can now develop more exciting products and solve onboarding and compliance issues faced all over the world,” he said.

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)