The first in the biometrics industry, this startup raised 220 million dollars in its latest round.
Incode specializes in biometric data analysis. (Photo: iStock)
More good news for the Mexican entrepreneurial ecosystem. Incode has become a unicorn company.
The platform for verifying and authenticating identities based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) has reached unicorn status, which is a designation for companies with a valuation of over 1 billion dollars.
Read more: The stampede of Latin American unicorn companies comes to the United States
The startup raised 220 million dollars in its latest investment round, reaching a valuation of 1.25 billion dollars. It’s the first Mexican unicorn in the biometrics industry.
Less than seven months after receiving 25 million dollars in its Series A investment round in March 2021, this Tuesday, Incode announced a roughly 10-fold step-up over its prior mark.
This latest Series B round raised 220 million dollars with a valuation of 1.25 billion dollars. The investment was led by investors from General Atlantic and SoftBank Latin America Fund, with further funding from J.P. Morgan Technology Ventures, Capital One Ventures, and Coinbase ventures.
“We’ve created an exceptional people-friendly experience that allows the end customer to have a unique experience when joining a new bank, checking into a hotel, or getting admitted to a hospital. By reinventing these experiences, we’re building trust between companies and their clients,” said Mexican entrepreneur Ricardo Amper, Founder and CEO of Incode Technologies, in a statement.
With this valuation, Incode will boost its growth in Mexico, Europe, the Middle East, the United States, Canada, and Latin America.
The Incode team (Photo: Incode)
Incode was founded in 2015 by Mexican Ricardo Amper, with a focus on photo-sharing. In 2018, it pivoted into identity verification and authentication, through a simple, secure, and fast AI-based platform.
The AI platform offers more than 50 identity validation components to financial services, banking, government, marketplace, cryptocurrencies, hospitality, healthcare, retail, and e-commerce, among others.
These include INE fingerprint verification, selfie verification, and payments with facial recognition. Today, it’s used by companies such as American Express, Citigroup, Banorte, Citibanamex, Sabadell, and Telefónica.
“The reality is that nowadays machines are much better than humans in terms of speed, privacy, and precision, which allows Incode to offer real-time responses safely and reliably, with much less likelihood of fraud,” says the firm.
Incode joins Clip, Konfío, Kavak, Bitso, and Clara as one of the Mexican companies to recently surpass the 1-billion-dollar barrier.
The startup has more than 50 components for biometric verification that can be used in different sectors (Incode video screenshot).
