Digital ID Startup Veri5Digital Raises $2 Mn Series A Funding Led By Khosla Ventures

Bengaluru-based software services provider Veri5Digital has raised $2 Mn in Series A funding led by California-based Khosla Ventures.

Veri5Digital plans to use the funding to scale its identity solutions for the Indian market and also build new identity and Digital India related products and services. It is also close to launching its identity related products in the US and Asia markets.

Founded in 2015, Veri5Digital, earlier known as AadhaarBridge, offers Digital India services (government and regulated systems) for the private sector. Veri5Digital provides identity and other IndiaStack solutions like enterprise SaaS platform, with plug-n-play SDKs and APIs.

In view of the Supreme Court judgement restricting the use of Aadhaar in the private sector, Veri5Digital has built a suite of identification products that use video selfies and government issued ID (PAN, Passport etc) to offer a KYC service. It offers products in:

• KYC – Aadhaar KYC and Video ID
• Signature – Aadhaar based eSign
• Aadhaar Hosted – Manage AUA/KUA Servers and Aadhaar Vault
• Payment – eNACH mandate management

The company said that its solutions have enabled authentication for over 10 Mn transactions for more than 250 businesses across banking, insurance, lending, internet and service based companies, and mutual fund houses.

Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, said, “Identity is a key underlying infrastructure that drives digital transactions globally. It is possible to not only deliver high assurance identity verification, but also maintain the privacy of every individual. Veri5Digital has built innovative AI solutions around KYC and authentication, which address the online, digital identity needs of companies globally.”

A recent McKinsey report says that the identity management domain is growing at 20% Y-o-Y. Globally, the personal identity management (PIM) market is expected to grow at 20% CAGR and reach about $34 Bn by 2024. While the market is still nascent in India, the repeated breaches and attacks incurred by the Aadhaar system have necessitated startups such as Veri5Digital with solutions to make personal data more secure.

Aadhaar might just be 12-digit number issued by the UIDAI to the residents of India, but its implications are severe in the real of security and data  protection as it is linked to biometric data, name, permanent address, and mobile number, as well as bank accounts and other government schemes. Over 1.2 Bn Indians have got an Aadhaar id, according to the government, so security be a priority over convenience in any implementation that uses Aadhaar.