Santander InnoVentures, a fintech venture capital fund owned by Banco Santander, has announced a new investment in a Canada-based identity verification provider Trulioo.
Banco Santander’s fintech fund is a $200m (£160m) corporate venture fund investing in fintech start-ups and adjacent areas to accelerate growth, support great entrepreneurs and teams, and capital support.
Trulioo marks the first investment by InnoVentures in Canada. The investment adds to the more than 25 fintech investments in the fund’s global portfolio.
Trulioo CEO and founder Stephen Ufford said: “Today, families, businesses and entire economies are being powered by the global shift towards a truly digital economy which is exciting but also opens us up to a whole new world of risk. We’re committed to the fight against financial crime, money laundering and even election fraud, and bringing forward solutions backed by technology to stop it in its tracks.”
Trulioo secured a total of C$96.6m (£58.7m) in capital investment since 2011
Trulioo provides instant global ID verification for five billion consumers and more than 250 million business entities in over 195 countries, and serves a wide range of industries including tech, banking, retail, payments, online marketplaces and social media networks.
In addition, it enables companies stay compliant with Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Customer Due Diligence (CDD) requirements by automating Know Your Customer (KYC) and Know Your Business (KYB) workflows.
The company also provides real-time access to hundreds of reliable data sources to instantly verify identities, and enabling them to participate in the modern digital economy.
Santander InnoVenture said that its investment is part of a fundraise from Trulioo, which has raised a total of C$70m (£42m) in new funding, C$60m (£36) in Series C financing led by Goldman Sachs, with participation from Citibank, Innoventures and American Express, and C$10m (£6m) in funding from early investors Blumberg Capital and BDC Capital last year.
InnoVentures senior advisor Chris Gottschalk said: “We are excited to partner with Trulioo at an exciting time in the company’s evolution and acceleration.”
InnoVentures partner and investments head Manuel Silva Martínez said: “Santander is a key player in the global economy and, as the underlying transactions increasingly rely on digital infrastructure, the Trulioo solution is valuable in verifying and protecting all participants.”
