IDfy.com, an online fraud detection platform that provides background verification services, has raised Rs 19.50 crore ($3 million) in a fresh round of funding from new and existing investors, according to a person directly in the know.
Existing investor US-based early-stage venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates participated in the round. NB Ventures, the family investment office of UAE-based investor Neelesh Bhatnagar and Tokyo-based Dream Incubator also put in money in this round, the person mentioned above added.
However, it is not clear whether this is the company’s Series B funding round.
Ashok Hariharan and Vineet Jawa, co-founders of IDfy.com, did not immediately respond to email queries from VCCircle at the time of publishing this report.
The Mumbai-based company had last raised funds, Rs 18 crore or under $3 million, in August 2015 from NEA, existing investor Blume Ventures, Faktory Ventures and Japanese e-commerce and investment firm Beenos. In 2012, the company had raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Blume Ventures.
The company had also raised an undisclosed sum from venture debt firm Trifecta Capital in 2016, a report by news business and online trading website Moneycontrol shows.
IDfy, operated by Baldor Technologies Pvt Ltd, was founded in 2011 by Hariharan, Jawa and Hatim Baheranwala. It helps users authenticate and validate individual profiles using predictive analytics through services such as background verification, customer insights and end-to-end HR intelligence for recruitment. The company verifies candidate profiles, PAN cards, work experience, educational qualifications, addresses and references, and charges its users accordingly.
It’s solutions have relevant use cases in financial risk management, human resources and the sharing economy, according to information available on the company’s website.
The company has so far analysed nearly five lakh profiles and has identified nearly 40,000 fake profiles, the website added. The six-year-old company, which is present in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, claims to be clocking 30% month-on-month growth.
Besides IDfy, Hariharan and Jawa also co-founded another venture, Gaboli, a web development and digital marketing services company, in 2008. Prior to founding Gaboli, Hariharan worked with British Telecom. Jawa was previously co-founder at fin-tech firm LendingKart and has also worked at IT firm Tech Mahindra. Both Jawa and Hariharan are alumni from the Indian School of Business.
Baheranwala, the third promoter, left the company in 2013 and co-founded Trussbot, an HR tech firm, in October 2015, his LinkedIn account shows.
According to the IDfy website, the current core leadership team comprises Hariharan (chief executive), Kaushik Shah (chief technology officer) and Wriju Ray (chief revenue officer). Shah had earlier worked with Tech Mahindra, while INSEAD alumnus Ray had previously worked with British Telecom and Oracle. Ray was also IDfy’s chief operating officer until January 2017, his LinkedIn profile shows.
For the financial year 2016-17, the company’s operational revenues grew two-fold to Rs 8.34 crore, up from Rs 3.22 crore from the previous financial year. Gross expenditure rose nearly two-fold to Rs 17.43 crore, up from Rs 10.25 crore from the year-ago period. Expenses increased due to employee and verification expenses.
The company’s net losses were capped at Rs 8.54 crore for 2016-17, from Rs 6.63 crore the previous year.