Persona, the identity infrastructure company offering businesses the building blocks to create a personalized identity verification experience for any use case, announced today that it has secured $50 million in Series B funding led by Index Ventures with participation from existing investor Coatue. Additionally, Index Ventures’ Partner Mark Goldberg will be taking a seat on Persona’s board of directors.
“With more transactions moving online, there are more unique business use cases for identity verification than ever before. The one-size-fits-all approach to identity is falling out of practice for good reason,” said Rick Song, co-founder and CEO of Persona. “The strategy your business needs for identity verification and management is going to be completely different if you’re a travel company verifying guests versus a delivery service onboarding new couriers versus a crypto company granting access to user funds. Even businesses within the same industry should tailor the identity verification experience to each customer if they want to stand out.”
In the last year, Persona has seen aggressive growth, with revenue increasing by more than 10 times year over year and employee headcount more than tripling. Persona will use this investment to grow its team another twofold by the end of the year to support its growth and continue scaling the business. “Our team has been building an end-to-end identity verification platform that adapts perfectly to any use case, and we’ve proven this flexibility by partnering closely with industry-defining businesses in numerous use cases. This funding enables us to shift our focus from building to ambitiously scaling and helping even more businesses deter fraud, stay compliant, and build trust and safety,” said Song.
“We’re at a unique tipping point where consumers are demanding personalized, effortless experiences while businesses need more layers of security. Existing all-in-one solutions lack the flexibility to adapt to the number and variety of use cases that are cropping up for businesses in various industries. By focusing on providing tailored experiences for both end users and operators, Persona has reimagined identity verification to meet the needs of both,” said Mark Goldberg, Partner at Index Ventures. “We believe Rick and his team have solved the core issues with identity verification and are critical to making the internet a safer place.”
Since its inception in 2018, Persona has focused on allowing its customers to tailor the end-to-end identity verification process — from collecting PII to automating decisions. Businesses can select from one of the widest ranges of verification options in the industry, access thousands of data sources, and build a personalized experience for both their business needs and their customers. The company increased its customer base by 5 times in the last year, serving a wide range of industries with customers including Square, Robinhood, Sonder, Brex, Udemy, Gusto, BlockFi, and AngelList.
About Persona
Persona offers identity infrastructure that enables businesses to craft personalized and automated identity verification solutions for any use case. The platform provides building blocks to help businesses tailor how they collect, verify, and make decisions about customers’ identities. Founded in 2018, Persona is headquartered in San Francisco and is available in 190+ countries and 20 different languages. Persona serves any business that needs to verify its customers online, including retail, fintech, marketplace, delivery services, real estate and hospitality, HR, edtech, legal services, home and childcare services, and more. For additional information, please visit withpersona.com.
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