Digital ID verification company OCR Labs based in the Land Down Under secured €12.5m($15m) in a Series A investment led by Turkish investors Oyak Group to fuel its expansion into the UK and Turkish markets.
The Series A investment will be used to invest in technology innovation in order to scale OCR Labs into the UK and Turkish markets and grow its team in both London and Istanbul. The company already has a growing team in the UK where they have established their International HQ and plans to double their presence this year.
Founded in 2018 by Daniel Aiello and Matthew Adams, OCR Labs specialises in digital ID verification, customer onboarding, identity fraud and regulatory compliance.
OCR’s technology uses five proprietary technologies in one solution, including identity document optical character recognition (OCR), document fraud assessment, liveness detection, video fraud assessment and face matching. This supports AML and KYC regulations.
The Australian company’s software allows any ID document to be scanned and verified using a fully automated and secure solution, providing services to government, finance, insurance, property and telecommunications sectors. The company has more privacy certificates than AWS and Google Workspaces, it claimed.
Given that the ID verification market is expected to be worth $15.8Bn by 2025, it is easy to see why the technology is being required by more and more sectors. OCR Labs is used by recruitment business REED in the UK to address the need to digitally verify candidates identities. In addition, it experienced triple-digit growth in Australia since its launch.
Commenting on the firm’s plans, Aiello said, “The need for digital verification is growing exponentially. This past year we’ve seen more demand from new sectors as they try to navigate the pandemic and an inability to operate in person…No one wants to spend hours trying to prove who they are, whether it’s for a job or for a bank account, and we also want to know we’re protected against identity theft and fraud.
“Digital ID verification has a key role to play, but this year we’ve also seen the limitations if hybrid models are used. People are a barrier and a risk, but fully automated technology can have a huge impact on many industries and privacy. OCR Labs is built to be secure, frictionless and fast, and capable of recognizing ID documents the world over.”
Russ Cohn, an early member of the Google UK leadership team, has been appointed OCR’s General Manager of International Operations, based out of London.
Cohn added: “The technology that Matt and Dan have created is completely automated, so it doesn’t rely on any humans behind the scenes. That’s very key at the moment. We’ve seen how COVID has impacted having that hybrid solution, so automation increases the speed and delivery of the technology to our users… A lot of competitors outsource and use different vendors to put together a solution.”
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