Identity decisioning fintech Alloy raises another US$52mn

Identity verification fintech Alloy has raised US$52mn in an extension to last year's Series C funding round, bringing its latest valuation to US$1.55bn.

The latest round of investment was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Avenir Growth, with further participation from existing investors Canapi Ventures, Bessemer Venture Partners, Avid Ventures and Felicis Ventures. The New York-based fraudtech says it will use the money to invest in a global rollout, having announced an expansion into 40 countries last month as it embarks on a recruitment drive that will help it in that endeavour. Alloy is also in the process of building new features for its platform, and is constantly striving to grow its client base.

Alloy, which was founded in 2015, has built an “identity decisioning platform” that supports fintechs in onboarding new customers and protects them from fraud. A recent survey from Forrester Research found that nearly two-thirds (64%) of financial institutions believe that fraudulent applications are outmanoeuvring the ability of existing identity decisioning tools to prevent them, with approximately 18% of accounts opened being fraudulent.

Alloy’s single API connects fintechs to important data – including social security numbers, credit data, home address, phone number and email. Over 300 companies use Alloy to connect to more than 160 data sources, automate identity decisions during account origination, and monitor them on an ongoing basis.

Alloy has ‘critical role’ to play in finance ecosystem

Alloy Co-Founder and CEO Tommy Nicholas says: “We feel incredibly lucky to have partners that not only understand the impact of our investments into our platform and in expanding globally but also proactively come to the table to support them. With this newest investment we’ll be able to accelerate our growth and better address the global fraud challenges that companies are facing.”

Andrew Sugrue, Managing Partner at Avenir, says: “What makes Alloy unique is that the company hasn’t just built a powerful platform; its team consistently delivers expert guidance to help companies, big and small, navigate risk as well as regulatory requirements.”

Justin Overdorff, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, continues: “With fraud rates on the rise, Alloy plays a critical role in the financial ecosystem by bringing their expertise and platform to both emerging fintech companies and established banks. Fraud is inevitable and one of the biggest risks for new financial technology; leveraging Alloy's infrastructure gives companies a leg up fighting fraud by giving a unique holistic view of each customer from the day they onboard and throughout their entire life cycle as a customer.”