Victoria-based background screening startup Certn has acquired Trustmatic, a European remote identity verification company. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Certn hopes the deal, which closed October 31, will solidify its position as a global leader in screening and identification verification. It comes just over a year after Certn acquired Australian company InterCheck, a competitor in the identity verification space and seven months after Certn closed a $30-million USD Series B extension to fuel its international growth.
“Trustmatic’s innovative technology complements our existing offerings and helps us better serve clients, like those in financial services.”
– Andrew McLeod
“This acquisition aligns seamlessly with our mission to provide faster and easier screening services,” Certn’s co-founder and CEO Andrew McLeod said in a statement. “Trustmatic’s innovative technology complements our existing offerings and helps us better serve clients, like those in financial services.”
Founded in 2016, Certn offers a software platform that facilitates the pre-employment background screening process and allows businesses to hire more quickly while also managing risk.
Certn claims its platform can return domestic and international criminal background checks, credit reports, reference checks, education verification, employment verification, motor vehicle records, and identity verification within minutes. On its website, the startup claims its online platform can reduce the time to hire by 80 percent.
Certn’s Series B extension earlier this year brought the total round size to $80 million USD and its valuation to approximately $450 million USD. According to a statement from the company, Certn sees room to grow in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as Asia-Pacific markets, and plans to invest its Series B capital in doing just that with the help of Export Development Canada (EDC), which led the extension earlier this year.
Certn’s acquisition spree, which now totals three in the last two years, also includes United Kingdom-based Credence.
RELATED: Certn acquires United Kingdom’s Credence to expand background checks solutions
Trustmatic is an identity verification company that helps businesses detect advanced fraud attacks and onboard more users into their platforms with a high-level of accuracy. Trustmatic claims to use AI and biometric algorithms to allow individuals to verify their identity in seconds using just their ID and a selfie.
Certn and Trustmatic are far from the only players in the remote identification and verification space. Vancouver-based Trulioo has also developed a digital identity verification solution, which operates as a single API integration. Trulioo claims to offer global ID verification for 700 million business entities serving five billion consumers.
In August, Trulioo revealed new “person-matching” capabilities for its Workflow Studio. Person matching refers to a positive match between a person and the identity information they provide. This confirms the identity the person provided is authentic. Trulioo has raised significant funding to date, but more recently has switched up its strategy. Last year, the firm laid off 10 percent of its staff as part of its move to stop selling to small businesses.
Feature image courtesy of Certn.