British fintech WorldFirst has expanded its long-time partnership with Israel-based ID verification provider AU10TIX . The upgrade refers to improved front-end capabilities that will allow a more robust and seamless onboarding experience for customers.

AU10TIX will reportedly improve thusly WorldFirst’s customer verification system and KYC platform for its Europe, the Middle East, and Africa operations. The partnership between WorldFirst and AU10TIX debuted in 2014. Since then, the AU10TIX platform has played an important role in enhancing ID fraud protection and KYC compliance while streamlining and speeding-up customer service experience.

As detailed in the company press release, in 2019, WorldFirst became part of Ant Financial, the fintech affiliate of China’s internet giant Alibaba. The tech conglomerate is known best for the Alipay mobile payments platform, but also runs businesses including a credit rating system and cloud computing service. At present time, WorldFirst’s services include hedging through forward contracts, creation of local overseas currency accounts and easy integration with Xero and online marketplaces.

Since its foundation in 2004, more than 240K businesses have used WorldFirst to send more than GBP 87 billion around the world. AU10TIX and past activity in identity verification services AU10TIX provides critical, modular solutions to verify and link physical and digital identities so businesses and their customers can confidently connect. AU10TIX's proprietary technology provides results in less than 8 seconds, as per company estimates, enabling businesses to onboard customers faster while preventing fraud, and meeting compliance mandates.

One of the company’s prominent partnerships in the last year was with PayU, with plans to streamline the merchant onboarding process by utilising AI and automation to authenticate identities.   The service, established in Q4 of 2021, is used to verify the identities of individuals or representatives of businesses connecting to PayU directly or via marketplaces powered by PayU’s payments solution.   In July 2022, AU10TIX has partnered with shopping platform ShopBack to augment onboarding of new clients for its BNPL offering.

The partnership followed ShopBack’s  acquisition of Asia’s omnichannel BNPL service hoolah to help merchant partners increase conversions and basket size while driving customer loyalty. AU10TIX has also started negotiations in April with several funds to be sold at around USD 1. 2 billion valuation.

Several funds were believed to be interested in acquiring AU10TIX, with the deal estimated to be between USD 300-USD 750 million depending on the stake to be ultimately bought from the Atzmons. The TPG fund currently holds a 7. 5% stake in the company with Oak HC/FT owning 3% of the company’s shares.

Both funds are also expected to sell their holdings together with the Atzmons. .