$15 M secured by SA digital identity startup iiDENTIFii for African expansion
The digital identity business iiDENTIFii, located in Cape Town, has secured $15 million in growth capital to support its development throughout Africa.
Advanced face authentication technology from iiDENTIFii can quickly and safely authenticate users using their PCs or mobile devices. The major pan-African banks, insurers, and mining companies use the startup, which works across various business verticals, for both employee and consumer identification.
African investment firm Arise, whose cornerstone investors include Rabobank Partnerships, Norfund, NorFinance, and FMO, led its $15 million US fundraising round. Growth-stage private equity company Sanari Capital and seasoned US software entrepreneur Bill Spruill are among investors in the round in addition to Arise.
With the help of this financing, iiDENTIFii plans to expand throughout Africa. The business thinks its biometric authentication, which guards access to critical financial information, may be a crucial component of financial inclusion, digital inclusion, and identity inclusion on the continent. Cybercrime in the financial sector is an increasing concern to the continent.
“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.”
Gavin Tipper, the CEO of Arise, claimed that iiDENTIFii enhanced his company’s portfolio of bank investments in Sub-Saharan Africa and signalled its entry into the African fintech sector.
“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.
