Atlanta-based identity verification startup Evident has raised $20 million in a Series B funding round led by Aspect Ventures, with participation from existing investors New Enterprise Associates, cybersecurity veteran and investor Tom Noonan and new investor Blue Cloud Ventures.
“We anticipate that this funding will not only ramp up our headcount, but will also drive product innovation,” founder and CEO David Thomas tells Hypepotamus. “Evident plans to use our newly raised capital to expand and improve our technology and product capabilities, and to take our business into new markets.”
Evident’s technology uses a mix of AI, machine learning, and computer vision to provide a robust background check and verification platform.
Enterprises can integrate Evident’s API to continuously verify who they’re hiring, onboarding, or registering to avoid fraudulent activity. This is also essential for enterprises that need to accept users, but aren’t internally set up to protect their data.
Evident’s addressable market will grow to more than $20 billion by 2022, according to reports, as enterprise data breaches continue to occur.
Their solution has now expanded beyond identity verification, according to Thomas. The platform is able to verify credentials like insurance, motor vehicle records, professional licenses, driver’s licenses, drug tests, medical and financial records, and more.
“The ability to simultaneously verify multiple data points at once and connect the dots to provide a holistic view of an individual’s identity is unprecedented for our industry, in which most providers can only verify a single credential, like an identity document, credit report, or criminal history,” says Thomas.
The security startup has solidified important clients since their Series A raise in 2017, working with several large tech companies like Airbnb, Porch, Sifted, and Wag. They’ve also forged partnerships with data providers like Urjanet and Marsh Global to broaden their verification capabilities.
The Marsh Global partnership has resulted in the first-ever blockchain-based verification solution to streamline the process of onboarding sharing economy employees.
“Through our blockchain insurance and identity verification solution, marketplace platforms can confidently validate their users and minimize their exposure to personally identifiable information,” says Thomas.
The three-year-old company has seen a 300 percent year-over-year growth and opened a European headquarters in Krakow, Poland this past February, expanding the engineering and development teams.
Thomas shares that they’re aiming to triple their headcount by the end of the year to around 100 employees.
“Identity verification has never been more important, especially as businesses consider the conflict of mitigating fraud while prioritizing growth and streamlined user experiences,” said Vanessa Larco, Partner at NEA, in a statement. “Evident is solving these crucial challenges while maintaining the highest standards of privacy and security.”
