Today, we live in a world where everything is locked with our identity be it fingerprints or a driver’s license. However, it will soon be possible to eliminate this hassle with the help of a company VU, which is a cybersecurity company specializing in fraud prevention and identity protection. Its mission is to offer secure digital experiences not only for citizens but also for businesses, during the digital transformation process.
This Argentina-based company announced that it is raising funds equal to the amount of $12 million in series B funding. The list of investors includes software developer Globant, as well as Agrega Partners, NXTP Ventures, Bridge One, the IDB Lab, and Telefónica. The new funding gives the company total venture-backed investments of $20 million, as mentioned by CEO Sebastián Stranieri.
The CEO’s inspiration for creating such a company comes from a personal experience when he was helping his grandmother verify her identity with the Argentinian government in what turned out to be a two-minute process.“It pushed me to create a company to help create digital experiences without the friction,” he told. He himself has worked in the cybersecurity industry for the past 20 years.
The company works as such, it takes a person’s “online persona” and uses his additional information like geolocation, biometrics, and user behavior analysis to provide identity verification for users. Subsequently, it enables a continuous authentication process that sees and connects the users’ online and offline personas. Simply put, it works mainly with government entities in countries like Argentina and Ecuador, providing them a way to confirm if people are who they say they are.
VU is one of several startups which is applying technology to fraud and identity within a global digital identity market expected to reach over $33 billion by 2025, as per Adroit Market Research.
The company is averaging 85% year-over-year revenue growth, and the CEO expects that to continue in 2021 with 100% growth forecasted for 2022. As such, he plans to use the new funding to hire developers across Europe and in the U.S.In the span of 3 years, VU has grown to over 150 employees. It is operating in Latin America and Europe, along with catering to big customers like Santander and Prisma, and governments in Latin America. The company also opened its first office in New York, where Stranieri expects to more than quadruple headcount in the next year.
Globant investment into the company also acts as a partnership. Its offers software development to big fishes of the pond like Google, Disney, and Apple. Together, they will package VU’s digital experience so that companies can purchase the basic software and then also customize it. Currently, VU’s technology is suited for banks and to provide a one-click e-commerce checkout where a retailer’s system will recognize and confirm the buyer.””