African Digital Identity Verification Solutions Smile Identity Secures $20 Million In Series B Funding Round

Digital identity verification solutions for Africa, Smile Identity has secured $20 million in Series B Funding. The round was co-led by Costanoa and Norrsken22. Additional new investments came from Commerce Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Two Culture Capital, and Latitude. Existing investors Valuestream Ventures, Intercept Ventures and Future Africa also joined the round.

Building on the success of the Series A round, this round brings Smile Identity’s total funding to over $30 million since its founding.

The funding will be deployed for investments in three areas which include the expansion of its product & engineering team in Africa and globally, accelerating the development and specialization of its AI-powered biometrics, document verification, anti-fraud solutions and data access. Also, the company will be completing its Pan-African reach by building new teams in Francophone and North Africa, with a focus on local language support, compliance and UX optimization. Smile Identity will also be looking at deepening its commitment to the local ecosystem by enforcing African data protection laws with pre-built consent layers and integration methods that fulfill local requirements; and by sharing anonymised metrics and insights on fraud trends across Africa.

According to CEO, Mark Straub, Smile Identity will be increasing the number of free credits available to startups, to help them speed up compliance and stop fraud on Day 1.

In recent years and also propelled by its Series A funding, Smile Identity has evolved from a startup into a multi-national that serves as a trusted partner for its clients, local and global, fintech and enterprise alike.

In the past year, the company has doubled its customer base and tripled revenues. As highlighted in its 2022 annual KYC report, Smile Identity has now completed an estimated 50 million KYC and identity verification checks for hundreds of clients, solidifying its position as Africa’s expert in digital identity.

The company has integrations to more ID databases than any other KYC provider in Africa and provides compliance and anti-fraud solutions to many of the continent’s champions in banking, lending, payments, remittances, cryptocurrency and the shared economy.

In addition to growing the business, in the last twelve months, the company has announced the following:

• Document Verification – allowing it to provide global ID coverage.
• Know Your Business (KYB) – an API to check information on companies, directors, and beneficial owners.
• New offices in London and Cape Town – expanding its reach and in-person support for its clients.

Speaking on its long-term goals, Mark Straub, “At Smile Identity, we believe everyone deserves access to a digital future, regardless of the origin of their ID card or IP address. We are dedicated to securing the infrastructure for Digital Africa, making this ‘future’ a reality today.”