iiDENTIFii, a digital identity startup based in Cape Town, has secured $15 million in growth capital to help it expand across Africa.
Its US$15 million fundraising round was led by African investment firm Arise, with Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance, and FMO as key investors. Along with Arise, Sanari Capital, a growth-stage private equity firm, and veteran US IT entrepreneur Bill Spruill participated in the round.
This money will be used to finance iiDENTIFii’s growth across Africa. Cybercrime in the financial sector is a rising concern to the continent, and the firm thinks that its biometric authentication, which secures access to critical financial information, may be an important element of the continent’s financial inclusion, digital inclusion, and identity inclusion.
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“I’m incredibly proud of our engineering team and our growth as a company over the past three years,” said iiDENTIFii founder and CEO Gur Geva. “This investment validates our central business thesis that we are the preferred partner for enterprise-grade identity in Africa. We’re excited to put the investment to work as we close in on our goal of authenticating every face in Africa. With this new funding and the networks of Arise, Sanari, and Bill — we confidently continue our mission of stopping identity theft in Africa.”
According to Arise CEO Gavin Tipper, iiDENTIFii complements his firm’s portfolio of bank investments in Sub-Saharan Africa and marks the firm’s first move into the African fintech industry.
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“We are excited about our partnership with iiDENTIFii, which will allow us to offer their unique technology to banks in Sub-Saharan Africa, strengthening digital anti-money laundering practices and advancing financial inclusion,” he said.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Founded in 2018, iiDENTIFii has created powerful facial authentication technology that securely authenticates users in seconds via their mobile phones or PCs. The firm operates across various business verticals and is utilised for both consumer and staff identification by the top pan-African banks, insurance, and mining houses.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexpert