IDology, an Atlanta-based digital identity verification company, will be purchased by a British identity data company, GBG, for $300 million. All 70 IDology employees will remain with the company and stay in their Atlanta office, including the senior leadership team.
IDology is the foremost provider of identity verification and fraud prevention solutions in the U.S. Their tools help clients across industries — from financial services to gaming, healthcare, retail and more — authenticate their customers’ digital identities to prevent fraud and comply with regulations.
For example, online gambling companies use IDology to ensure their users meet age and geographic requirements. Financial institutions, which make up a significant portion of their customers, according to President and CEO John Dancu, employ the platform to prevent fraud.
The 14-year-old company has several thousand clients across the U.S. In 2018, IDology took in $38.2 million in revenue with EBITDA of $16.3 million. It hasn’t taken in any outside capital since its very early stages in 2005 and 2006.
GBG’s identity offerings are complementary; even, in some cases, duplicative. The UK firm specializes in validating and verifying both identity and location by using data from over 200 global partners.
They have 18 offices across Europe, Asia and the U.S., 17,000 customers, and over 800 employees.
IDology will serve as GBG’s largest acquisition, out of 11 over the last eight years, to date.
Dancu positions the acquisition as expanding GBG’s customer base and foothold in North America, which GBG calls “a key growth region.” After existing as partners for many years, he says the acquisition made “total strategic sense.”
Dancu and GBG CEO Chris Clark both mention the cultural alignment of the two companies.
“With attractive organic growth, significant synergies and a strong cultural alignment, this is a high-quality addition to GBG,” Clark said in a statement.
Dancu says the company will continue operating as usual “under a larger umbrella”, and will be focusing on growth market areas like healthcare and insurance.
“I think the world is in need of a global identity verification provider,” says Dancu. “Today, we kind of created that.”
