Prove raises $40M at $1B valuation for ID verification tech

Prove, the smartphone-based identity verification startup formerly known as Payfone, has recently secured a funding of $40M, pushing the company's valuation past the $1B mark.

• Growth: Prove has reported a 40% surge in its international business over the past year and currently serves approximately 1,000 business customers globally.

• Innovation at their core: Prove's technology connects data from a phone's SIM card, acting as a "privacy-centric proxy for digital identities", with smartphone features like facial recognition to authenticate users. This process initiates other actions including pre-filling information and password-free authentication.

• Funding Use: The new influx of funds will be utilized to develop more tools for digital payments and commerce, fraud detection, with the mobile handset remaining the central element of the proposition.

• Who's Got Their Back: This round of funding is co-led by strategic investors MassMutual and Capital One.

• Goals: Notably, CEO Rodger Desai had previously revealed that Prove processed 20 billion authentications in 2019, with plans to boost that number to 100 billion transactions in the upcoming years.

• Customer Base: Prove's clients include "9 of the top 10 U.S. banks, 2 of the top 3 global cryptocurrency exchanges, 3 of the top 5 U.S. retailers, 2 of the top 3 U.S. healthcare companies, and 6 of the top 10 insurance companies in the U.S."

• Strategic Shift: Initially, Prove focused on carrier billing, partnering with mobile operators to provide an alternative to credit cards. It later transitioned to using phone data to design user verification flows for customers.

The identity and access management market was estimated at nearly $16B in 2022, indicating a promising future for companies like Prove.

Charles Svirk, a partner at MassMutual Ventures, will join Prove's board of directors following the investment.