CAF (formerly Combate à Fraude), a Brazil-based digital identity verification provider, has raised over USD 19. 4 million in investments.

The investments were done through the participations from a group of global investors, led by Ethoca co-founders Darryl Green, Andre Edelbrock and Trevor Clarke, as well as the former LexisNexis CEO Andrew Prozes. Other investors also have joined the round, such as Kevin Efrusy, and NielsenIQ CEO and chairman James Peck, who will also join CAF’s board. The company’s valuation was not disclosed.

The new round of funding will go towards innovation, platform development, new hires, and global expansion. CAF’s platform is trusted by banks, fintechs, ecommerce merchants, insurance companies, mobility and delivery apps, marketplaces, among others. CAF’s approach to identity verification and digital onboarding helps businesses to innovate and scale faster, easier, and more securely.

CAF’s platform leverages several technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), document verification, and facial authentication to ensure that individuals are legitimate. It is one of the few companes in Brazil to have a security certificate for its own proof-of-life technology, the ISO 30107-3, granted by iBeta Quality Assurance. The fintech market in Brazil Brazil’s market is quickly transforming itself, and it is essential that fintechs keep up with this evolution.

Brazil’s fintech industry achieved more than USD 319 million in investments in January 2022, 54% of the total amount invested in Brazilian startups that month. In 2021, 176 rounds of fintech investments added up to USD 3. 7 billion, almost double the 2020 volume of USD 1.

9 billion. Brazil has gone through massive data leaks and data exposures because many companies don't know yet how to move to digital, leaving security gaps that might become targets for fraudsters. A total of over USD 40 billion dollars has been lost in Brazil due to fraud.

While this is a major problem for companies nationwide, it also opens market space for innovative startups seeking to solve it. Verifying the identities of merchants before they can begin selling goods on marketplaces has become common practice. Without it, bad actors can infiltrate a marketplace with counterfeit goods and other forms of fraud.

Using identity verification stops fraudsters from registering under false pretences. They never get access to buyers, so fraud goes down and customer satisfaction goes up. .