Silicon Valley-based adaptive fraud prevention solutions provider Simility Inc., which also operates in India, has raised $17.5 million (about Rs 113 crore) in Series B funding led by Accel Partners.
Online payments platform PayPal has also participated in the round as a new strategic investor, along with existing investors The Valley Fund and Trinity Ventures.
The funding will help the startup speed up its global expansion plans, including its partner network, sales, partnerships, customer success and data science teams, Simility said in a press note.
The company, which was founded in 2014, has so far raised $25 million in external funding, which includes the latest capital infusion.
“Digital disruption in the financial and commerce sectors has resulted in the need for a fraud and risk management solution that goes beyond legacy to offer protection in a digital first, big data analytics-focused environment. Simility is fulfilling that need with an innovative, game-changing, adaptive solution,†said Rahul Pangam, co-founder and CEO, Simility.
“This latest funding round will enable us to enter our next phase of growth by bolstering our world-class team of industry veterans in sales, customer success and data science to meet market demand. We are announcing immediate plans to expand sales operations in the US, Brazil and Europe; expand European data science teams; and grow its global partnerships in Europe and India,†he added.
Simility helps companies prevent fraud and abuse in real-time with machine learning, big data analytics and data visualisation capabilities. The founding group comes with over 30 years of experience in fraud detection efforts at Google.
It also claims to have analysed global adoption among enterprise customers in financial services, retail and payments, from the largest e-commerce platform in Africa to multiple global Fortune 500 financial services organisations, including top 50 banks in the US.
“Enterprise fraud has grown dramatically over the past decade and can cost organisations millions of dollars in loss annually,†said Ryan Sweeney, partner at Accel. “We invested in Simility because of the calibre of its leadership team and its pioneering adaptive fraud prevention platform that protects organisations against the growing and costly threat of fraud.â€
The artificial intelligence and machine learning space has been gaining traction of late. November saw Singapore-based fin-tech startup Active.Ai raise $8.25 million (Rs 54 crore) in a Series A round co-led by Vertex Ventures, Creditease Holdings and Dream Incubator. Existing investors Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India had also participated in the round.
The same month also saw Vadodara-based Phonon Communications Pvt Ltd, which offers automated customer interaction solutions, acquire chatbot startup iDelivr for an undisclosed sum.
iDelivr builds industry-specific chatbots that mimic human-like interactions using technologies such as artificial intelligence and natural language processing. The company’s solutions have been adopted by companies in banking, financial services, insurance and mutual fund.
In July, human- and artificial intelligence-powered recruitment platform AirCTO, which helps companies hire technical talent, had raised angel funding from former Nokia director Francesco Cara.
AI startup Liv.Ai had recently mopped up capital from Astarc Ventures. Liv.Ai’s indigenously built speech-to-text software is used across e-commerce enterprises and government utilities, besides companies with a consumer interface.