London RegTech HooYu has been acquired in a £98 million all-cash deal.
It will join Mitek, a global leader in digital identity verification and fraud prevention based in San Diego, California and listed on New York’s NASDAQ stock exchange.
The firms said the acquisition will give organisations a more complete picture of consumers by marrying biometrics, ID document validation, geolocation and identity confidence scoring with real-time data signals such as bureau checks or matches to politically exposed person or sanction lists.
“Our current geopolitical, commercial and technological environment represents a perfect storm for bad actors,” said Max Carnecchia, CEO Mitek Systems.
“Mitek is leading the fight against fraud by providing the technology that businesses need to stamp out digital money launderers and sanctioned individuals.
“The only way to combat this scourge is to use artificial intelligence and stop bad transactions before they happen.
“We deeply respect HooYu’s heritage as a UK-founded technology company, operating in the global financial services hub, and one of the most highly regulated markets.
“The combination of both companies’ technologies now gives our customers the most comprehensive identity platform on the market today.”
HooYu CEO Keith Marsden said having a single KYC platform to manage identities and identify bad actors is becoming a prerequisite for any business transacting digitally.
“Bringing together Mitek’s lead in identity, liveness and biometrics, with our orchestration, configuration and journey services simplifies identity management for financial institutions,” he added.
RegTech 50 – UK’s most innovative compliance technology creators for 2021