Smile Identity has raised $7 million to expand its solution for assisting Africans in establishing their identity online
Smile Identity has raised $7 million to expand its solution for assisting Africans in establishing their identity online
Smile Identity has raised $7 million to accelerate the growth of its product, which enables Africans to prove their identity online. Costanoa Ventures and pan-African venture capital firm CRE Venture Capital led the round.
Intercept Ventures, Future Africa, LocalGlobe, and undisclosed angel investors also participated in the funding round. This is Smile Identity's second major fundraising effort in the four years since it launched in 2017. The initial funding round totaled $4 million and occurred in 2019.
Smile Identity was founded in California by Mike Straub and William Bres.
The company provides an infrastructure for identity verification and Know Your Customer compliance for businesses in a variety of industries, including fintech, banking, ride-hailing, and cryptocurrency. Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ghana, and Kenya all use its technology solutions.
As more aspects of commerce move online, the ability to digitally verify one's identity is critical for accessing the numerous services and financial offerings available. Yet, according to the World Bank, approximately 1 billion people worldwide struggle to identify themselves online.
According to data, 81% of this group of people lives in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia, and 47% are younger than their country's national identification age. Even when Africans possess formal identification, they spend an inordinate amount of time verifying that they are who they claim to be when conducting business or traveling.
It verifies identities with 15 government-issued identification authorities in six countries, with over 250 million people covered by its identity validations.
Smile Identity's innovation builds on government and non-profit advancements
Smile Identity's innovation builds on government and non-profit advancements by creating a "technology layer that makes Africa's new and old ID systems accessible and useful to the next generation of African technology companies."
This technology will simplify processes such as onboarding new customers or employees for businesses throughout Africa. Prior to its latest investment, the business had received funding from a number of other investors. Story Ventures, 500 Startups, ValueStream Ventures, and Khosa Impact are among them. These investors also took part in the company's latest round.
The startup will use the funding to improve and scale its innovations, as well as expand into new markets. It will add support for additional ID types for verification in order to provide customers with a more diverse solution set. The company claims to have already signed up 80 customers, including Twiga, Paystack, Umba, Paga, ChipperCash, and Kuda Bank, as well as Binance, Luno, Paxful, and Stanbic IBTC.
Along with the $7 million in funding, Smile Identity has added a new director to its board of directors. Costanoa was a co-lead on this funding round. John Cowgill, one of its partners, will join the board of directors of Smile Identity.
