Smile Identity

Smile Identity is the leading Know Your Customer (KYC) and Identity Verification provider for Africa.

Smile Identity helps companies scale rapidly across Africa by confirming the true identity of their users in real time, using any smartphone or computer.

Smile Identity was founded in 2016 by Mark Straub and William Bares. The company is headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, with offices in UK, US, Kenya, and South Africa.

 

Smile Identity's technology is powered by proprietary Machine Learning algorithms designed specifically for African faces, and their products include Identity Verification, Digital KYC, User Onboarding, Document Verification, Liveness Checks, Face Verification, Anti-fraud Checks, and Identity Data Deduplication.

 

 Smile Identity has completed 50M KYC checks for hundreds of partners across the African continent, helping them to scale their businesses by mitigating fraud and onboarding new customers seamlessly. 

 

Smile Identity's customers include payments companies like Paystack, Paga and Chippercash; neo-banks like Kudabank and Umba; traditional banks like Stanbic IBTC; cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance, Luno, and Paxful; and even supply-chain businesses like Twiga.

 

Smile Identity is backed by Costanoa Ventures, CRE Venture Capital, Khosla Impact, LocalGlobe, Norrsken22, Commerce Ventures, Intercept Ventures, ValueStream Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Two Culture Capital, Latitude, and others. The company raised $20M in Series B round on Feb 15, 2022. This brings Smile Identity's total funding to $31.1M to date.

 

 

  • Year founded: 2016
  • Funding Info: $31.1M over 4 Rounds (Latest Funding Type: Series B)
  • Yearly Revenue: NA
  • Employee Size: 51-200
  • Business Valuation: NA
  • City/Town: Lagos
  • State: Lagos
  • Country: Nigeria
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