“Online identity verification platform Trulioo has closed a $394 million series D round of funding at a $1.75 billion valuation, coming at a time when businesses across the spectrum have had to embrace digital transformation due to the global pandemic. Similar to how the need for electronic signatures has skyrocketed due to pretty much every activity going online over the past year, companies have also had to rapidly transition to technologies that allow them to verify that their users are who they say they are, without relying on in-person meetings. This is particularly pertinent in highly-regulated industries such as financial services.”

“Voice security startup Pindrop Security Inc. has agreed to buy Next Caller Inc. , making its first acquisition to build out personalization and verification services as the coronavirus pandemic spurs a surge in call volumes. Pindrop Chief Executive Officer Vijay Balasubramaniyan said the deal was for a mix of cash and equity with additional payments for hitting certain financial milestones, but he declined to specify the deal terms. The purchase will boost revenues by 10% and speed up the timeline for a possible initial public offering to about 18 months, he said in an interview.”

“As an increasing number of daily and essential services move to digital platforms — a trend that’s had a massive fillip in the last few months — having efficient but effective ways to verify that people are who they say they are online is becoming ever more important. Now, a startup called Payfone, which has built a B2B2C platform to identify and verify people using data (but no personal data) gleaned from your mobile phone, has raised $100 million to expand its business.”