Identity authentication startup Trust Stamp has landed its second investment from Second Century Ventures, an early-stage technology fund backed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
NAR, which represents 1.3 million members involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries, announced its initial investment into Trust Stamp back in November 2016, with the startup being one of eight companies to participate in SCV’s vertical tech accelerator program (REach).
The Atlanta-based safety tool company leverages artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies to verify strangers’ identities and provide a trust score.
It develops and deploys software to authenticate identity, and analyse public records and social media to provide a color-coded Trust Score. After creating the Trust Score, users can improve it by sharing additional information.
Founded in 2015 by Gareth Genner and Andrew Gowasack, Trust Stamp has clients across multiple industries, including a major US bank and recently launched an app to improve the safety of peer-to-peer marketplaces like Airbnb, Craigslist, Facebook Marketplace and Uber. Through its relationship with NAR, the company has also partnered with the National Association of Estate Agents in the UK to provide real estate agents with risk based tools to meet EU and UK anti-money laundering obligations.
The new investment will be used to expand its executive leadership team, as well as funding research and development to ‘advance and accelerate’ the company’s product roadmap.
With the rise in e-commerce leading to an increasing need for the financial industry to protect consumers’ data, many identity authentication startups have landed investments in recent months.
Last month, Alloy pulled in £3.8m in its seed funding round led by Eniac Ventures. The platform uses a single API and dashboard to help manage identity verification from initial signup through to the end of the customer lifecycle. iSignthis, a company specialising in identity verification and payment authentication, also placed up to A$6.5m to investors.
Earlier in the year, users and employee verification company ID.me has collected $19m in a Series B round from FTV Capital. The Virginia-based company serves financial institutions as well as government agencies and healthcare organisations, allowing users and employees to connect their legal identity to a digital login.
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