Stripe for identity verification

Going into a bank to open an account will probably become as retro an act as burning a CD, thanks to identity verification startups.

This space has been growing and evolving. If you have opened a financial account online recently, you may have been asked to record a video of yourself speaking a specific prompt. This kind of tech is not only handy for the user, it powers a company’s process for satisfying KYC (know your customer) and AML (anti-money laundering) regulations.

Startups in this space have been working to make that process easier, quicker, and accessible to various industries and business sizes.

Case in point: Passbase which recently launch Biometric Authentication. Passbase launched its core product on Product Hunt less than a year ago — a “full-stack” solution enabling companies to integrate identity verification into their products, without code or natively with their API and SDKs. The Passbase founders have referred to their product as “Stripe for identity verification.”

The new iteration adds biometric authentication (along with more features and updated API). This means that, for companies using Passbase, once a user has completed the onboarding process and been verified, they can use biometrics (in this case, face ID) to authenticate themselves again, as needed while using a product.

Launches over the last year show how competitive this space is. In February, Persona, a fully automated identity verification suite, launched on Product Hunt followed by a $50M Series B. Like Passbase, Persona’s founders explained that their experience implementing identity verification in past jobs was full of pain points and stitched-together solutions. Maker Rick Song explained:

“We want to support every company with access to affordable identity verification solutions that can be integrated easily, without engineering bandwidth, and without having to commit to a costly contract.”

More recent Product Hunt launches in this space include Authentiq 2.0 and Invoid, an identity verification solution for India.

Each touts a familiar message about making identity verification accessible for more companies. With the tech in place, we’re eager to see what interesting use-cases pop up outside fintech.

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