FUNDING | Nigeria’s YouVerify Raises $2.5 Million After Doubling Client Base in Less Than 2 Years

YouVerify, a Nigerian company specializing in identity verification and anti-money laundering (AML) solutions tailored for both banks and startups, has successfully raised a $2.5 million investment from Elm, an investment company owned by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.

The pre-Series A investment also includes a strategic partnership to help YouVerify streamline AML compliance for businesses, bolster global risk intelligence, and expand its products into new markets.

Since 2022, YouVerify has extended its real-time business verification services to encompass 145 jurisdictions spanning 48 countries. Furthermore, the platform now provides real-time individual verification, encompassing aspects such as credit history and national identity numbers, in 46 countries, said founder and CEO, Gbenga Odegbami.

Still, the company caters to commercial clients in just 12 countries. Within these nations, YouVerify handles approximately 4 million monthly applications for over 3,500 businesses, servicing 800 active clients. This demonstrates a notable surge from the figures of 2022, which accounted for 400 businesses and 5 million application processes annually.

Moreover, the platform’s capability to verify IDs has broadened significantly, now encompassing a population range of 400 million to 5 billion individuals, along with 600 million businesses across diverse sectors including gaming, travel, healthcare, and telecommunications.

“Individuals and businesses can verify their identity, registration status, and ownership using their government data through YouVerify. This is not the generic OCR-based KYC which uses image recognition to validate the ID presented to it. In addition, we launched our anti-money laundering and risk classification product to address some of these industries,” the CEO noted.

“For example, our risk classification determines the AML and financial risk exposure that clients pose to our customers. We utilize a variety of reliable data sources, including government sanctions and watchlists, global news outlets’ sentiment data, country-risk models and commercially accessible data, to make informed decisions on AML-related risks.”

According to Odegbami, YouVerify uses a strategy that involves leveraging established mathematical models and AI algorithms to evaluate and scrutinize risks. Following this assessment, the platform generates regulatory reports designed for submission to regulators across numerous countries.

YouVerify services clients across various industries including:

• Banks
• Fintech
• Crypto
• Gig Economy
• Trading
• Gaming and Casino
• NBFI
• Marketplaces

Some of YouVerify clients includes:

• Standard Chartered
• Sterling Bank
• Chipper Cash
• Mwananchi Credit
• Expedier
• Wema Bank
• PesaPeer
• MTN
• Fidelity
• PesaKit
• Leadway Assurance
• SwapMoney
• WorkPay
• Sika FX

Other players operating in a similar domain include:

• Smile Identity
• SumSub
• Dojah, and
• IdentityPass