BOSTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–FiVerity, Inc., a leading provider of cyber fraud detection and threat intelligence, announces today that it closed a $2 million round of financing to expand its cyber fraud detection and threat intelligence platform, which addresses growing types of cyber fraud for financial institutions. The investment was fueled by Mendoza Ventures and a class of super-angels from the cybersecurity and financial services industries, including serial entrepreneur Doug Levin, who has been appointed as the company’s Executive Chairman. FiVerity will use the funds to expand its products and ramp up sales and marketing efforts.
FiVerity’s machine-learning platform detects and prevents new and existing types of fraud more effectively than current alternatives at banks, credit unions, credit card providers and other financial institutions. Addressing the escalating rise in cyber fraud, FiVerity has initially focused on fighting synthetic identity fraud (SIF) – the fastest growing financial fraud at 25% per year that accounts for 20% of consumer credit losses, according to the Federal Reserve, and cost the industry over $20bn last year.
SIF fraudsters combine real and fake information to create entirely new, fraudulent identities to infiltrate financial institutions. They often use automation tools to generate thousands of phony identities to apply for fraudulent accounts and loans, overwhelming banks’ prevention efforts. FiVerity’s platform overlays existing systems and data services with a layer of machine learning that learns from human intelligence to provide a holistic perspective on fraud. The results are distributed across a community of financial institutions, regulators, and law enforcement through secure information sharing, strengthening industry collaboration to better thwart fraudsters.
“The increasing seriousness of synthetic identity fraud provided the initial focus for our market entrance. We’ve seen great results in preventing this type of cyber fraud, upwards of 40%, for our bank and credit union customers,” said Greg Woolf, founder and CEO of FiVerity. “But SIF detection and prevention is just for starters, our Platform has much broader applicability. This funding will help build momentum with our existing solutions, while also expanding to other types of financial cyber fraud and threat intelligence needs.”
Support from the AI, Anti-Fraud and Investment Community
With this round, FiVerity added key industry leaders to its Advisory Board, including Harvard Business School Professors and former executives from the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of the Treasury and U.S. Navy Intelligence. The Federal Reserve included the company in a whitepaper on SIF-mitigation strategies and invited Mr. Woolf to participate in a standards-definition group to improve consistency and collaboration across all banks, credit unions, and other financial institutions.
“While the fraudsters are mounting an AI arms-race, FiVerity has enabled banks and credit unions to stay ahead of the hackers and their cyber fraud schemes,” said Adrian Mendoza, founder and general partner with Mendoza Ventures. “We’ve seen significant customer growth and market acceptance with FiVerity since their launch and expect major growth in the year ahead. They are attracting great advisors and world-class talent while forging deep ties within the AI community, financial institutions, the Federal Reserve, government agencies and law enforcement.”
“It’s the business application of AI that matters, where service applications and digital learning continually drive the platform, that represents the competitive edge needed in business and across the world,” said Karim R. Lakhani, the Charles E. Wilson Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School and author of ‘Competing in the Age of AI’. “The FiVerity team fully embraced this approach with the perfect market application. FiVerity’s unique machine learning approach and deep relations with key stakeholders in the private and public sector, make them uniquely suited to thwart new levels of sophisticated financial fraud and help their customers stay one step ahead of bad actors in today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape in financial services.”
About FiVerity
FiVerity, Inc., is a groundbreaking cyber fraud detection company, utilizing machine learning and secure identity management to prevent sophisticated forms of cyber fraud. The company’s SynthID® platform is focused on thwarting cyber fraud threats at financial institution in real time, including synthetic identity fraud (SIF), a rapidly growing financial crime. FiVerity delivers actionable, proactive threat intelligence to banks, credit unions, and credit card providers in a public-private partnership, helping strengthen and scale their consumer lending, customer onboarding and payments processes. For more information, visit http://www.fiverity.com/.
