African ID verification and KYC compliance firm Smile Identity has secured $7 million in Series A funding.
The investment was co-led by Costanoa Ventures and the pan-African venture firm, CRE Venture Capital, along with participation from LocalGlobe, Intercept Ventures, Future Africa Ventures, and Angel Investors from across Africa and around the world. Existing investors, including Khosla Impact, ValueStream Ventures, Beta Ventures, 500 Startups, and Story Ventures also participated.
The round, which marks the largest investment into an identity verification company focused on Africa, brings Smile Identity’s total funding to over $11 million.
The company plans to use the new funding to improve its services, expand across more markets, add support for more ID types and hire more engineers and support staff across Africa. In conjunction with this round, John Cowgill of Costanoa, will be joining Smile Identity’s board.
Smile Identity launched in 2017 with a mission to make it easy for Africans anywhere to quickly and easily prove their identity online, while providing startups and established enterprises with the tools and software they need to automate customer onboarding, verify identities, and prevent fraud.
Africans spend an inordinate amount of time trying to prove or verify their identities in order to gain access to financial accounts, loans, SIM cards, address proofs, and social services; and an estimated 500 million Africans have no formal identification at all.
“We believe anyone should be able to prove their identity easily, anywhere in the world and that access to a modern digital lifestyle should not depend on the origin of your ID Card or IP address,” said Mark Straub, Co-founder and CEO, Smile Identity.
