The Lagos-based startup Identitypass providing compliance and security infrastructure for African businesses has just recently secured $2.8M in Seed funding. This round was led by Marc Ventures and will fuel the startup’s next phase of growth. Identitypass, backed by Y Combinator, Soma Capital, True Capital Fund and Sherwani Capital LP among other well-known funds now brags net funding of $3.1M over the past couple of months since its operations commenced in 2021.
Businesses worldwide lose about $1Tn per year to cybercrime, with the entire African continent losing $4B annually to cybercrime. Identitypass is an African startup making it possible for businesses to verify other businesses and easily track down cyber threats & fraud. Its services cut across sectors such as fintech, crypto, mobility, edTech, gig economy platforms and telcos, just to mention a few.
Growth; Past & Planned
Since its founding last year by Ebuka David Obi, Lanre Ogungbe and Niyi Adegboye, Identitypass has grown to process millions of verification calls on a monthly basis. The founding vision of the startup has always been to build a world-class compliance and security infrastructure for Africa.
Since the start of operations with the first verification call in January 2021, the team has been able to effectively enable over 200 active businesses in Nigeria, the UK, Kenya, the US and India to consistently verify their customers’ identities.
Identitypass was even recognised as the best verification company in Nigeria by the International Business Magazine on top of its award as the Most innovative verification solutions provider in Nigeria. The startup was also admitted into the Security Identity Alliance (OSIA) as an associate member.
A crucial goal for Identitypass is expanding to other African countries to provide solutions to the present identity crisis and financial inclusion issues in Africa. So far, Identitypass has been able to expand its solutions to just 4 other African countries, with Sierra Leone being the last addition just this month.
The Identitypass team has already introduced innovative verification products into the African digital market, including a verification SaaS solution, biometrics tech and data verification endpoints. All these were remarkably achieved with a team of 14.
The startup has now outlined its next phase of growth, aiming to focus on expanding its existing infrastructure consequently making it easier for businesses in the region to power digital identity services in more regions in Africa. Identitypass expects to roll out new vertical products and services which make it easier for users to track how their data is being used across the internet.
New customer ID verification products will be launched as well, to enable more companies to know who their customers truly are. By working with as many regulatory agencies as possible, Identitypass hopes to develop a top-notch data security framework across Africa. The startup will also work with multiple alliances, and form more formidable & strategic partnerships across different countries in Africa.
