Anti-Fraud Startup Socure Valued at $4.5 Billion in Latest Round

(Bloomberg) -- Socure, a startup focused on detecting and preventing identity fraud, reached a $4.5 billion valuation in its latest funding round. 

The company raised $450 million from investors led by Accel, Socure said Tuesday in a statement. Other investors included funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Group Inc., as well as Bain Capital, as well as Tiger Global Management.

Socure has picked up finance-industry clients including Wells Fargo & Co. and Varo as it sees a heightened focus on digital identities with the boom in e-commerce during the pandemic. The latest funding will help the firm expand capabilities such as continuous identity verification and payment and first-party fraud risk, according to Chief Executive Officer Johnny Ayers. 

“Today, more than ever, it is incredibly important that enterprises have the ability to safely onboard the right” customer, said Ayers, who is also Socure’s founder. 

Crypto has been a growth area for Socure, with many exchanges highly focused on regulation. And the creation of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, is “perfectly” in Socure’s wheelhouse for verifying identities and discouraging fraud, according to Ayers. Socure, which has notched five consecutive quarters of record year-over-year revenue growth, is not yet focused on turning a profit as the firm continues to emphasize research and development. 

The growing company expects to end the year with a total of about 500 employees and then double that during 2022, Ayers said.

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