Singapore-based identity verification platform Bureau has secured an additional $4.5 million in its Series C funding round, bringing the total raised to $12 million. The funding was led by investors GMO Venture Partners and GMO Payment Gateway, with participation from Quona Capital, Commerce Ventures, and Okta Ventures. In addition to the funding, Bureau announced its acquisition of identity verification startup inVOID, backed by Y Combinator, and a strategic partnership with GMO Payment Gateway.
Bureau, founded in 2020 and headquartered in Singapore and California, with teams in Dubai and India, offers businesses a solution to prevent fraud and ensure compliance with regulations. The platform serves various sectors, including banking, fintech, insurance, the gig economy, and real-money gaming.
The company’s CEO, Ranjan Reddy, explained that Bureau’s approach involves building a single source of truth through a network of verified identities, all tokenized behind a mobile number. Bureau combines digital person mapping, including mobile numbers, emails, devices, and IPs, with physical identity verification through methods such as document verification, OCR, Facematch, biometrics, or info from government databases. This generates tokenized insights that help companies with compliance, onboarding, and fraud detection.
Some examples of Bureau’s applications include preventing mule accounts and synthetic ID detection for banks and neobanks, enabling lending companies to accurately evaluate the risk profile of new-to-credit customers, and assisting fintech organizations in detecting account takeovers.
Bureau differentiates itself from other identity management platforms as it is not a data broker and does not share consumer data. Tokenized identities are a crucial part of Bureau’s data privacy architecture.
The additional funding will be used to further invest in data and AI capabilities, allowing Bureau to automate its decision-making processes and improve efficiency. The company also plans to expand its current coverage in 20 Asian markets to more than 100 markets globally.
Bureau’s focus on enhancing data privacy and its innovative approach to identity verification have attracted investors and customers alike. With the new funding and strategic partnerships, the company is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for reliable and secure identity verification solutions in the business world.
