Identity infrastructure company Persona has raised $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Index Ventures. The San Francisco-based company had participation from existing investor Coatue, TechCrunch reported first here.
Persona saw its revenue increase by over 10 times year over year and also more than tripled its employee headcount to just over 50 people, TechCrunch reported. The company, which was founded in 2018, said it will use the capital injection to grow its business and expand its employee headcount by another twofold, a news release shows.
Persona lets customers “ tailor the end-to-end identity verification process — from collecting PII to automating decisions,” the news release reads. Businesses are able to access Persona’s platform through an API, TechCrunch reported. The startup lets companies select from a range of verification options and access thousands of data sources to build a personalized experience for its own needs and its customers needs.
“With more transactions moving online, there are more unique business use cases for identity verification than ever before. The one-size-fits-all approach to identity is falling out of practice for good reason,” Rick Song, co-founder and CEO of Persona, said in a statement. “The strategy your business needs for identity verification and management is going to be completely different if you’re a travel company verifying guests versus a delivery service onboarding new couriers versus a crypto company granting access to user funds.”
Persona was able to grow its customer base by 5 times in the past year and counts on customers like Square, Robinhood, Sonder, Brex, Udemy, Gusto, BlockFi, and AngelList.
“We’re at a unique tipping point where consumers are demanding personalized, effortless experiences while businesses need more layers of security. Existing all-in-one solutions lack the flexibility to adapt to the number and variety of use cases that are cropping up for businesses in various industries. By focusing on providing tailored experiences for both end users and operators, Persona has reimagined identity verification to meet the needs of both,” Mark Goldberg, Partner at Index Ventures, said in a statement.
In other recent fundraising news, HoneyBook, a financial management and client experience platform for service-based small businesses and freelancers, has raised a $155 million Series D round.