Trulioo Q&A — How to become the leading identity verification service

Trulioo is thrilled to announce that we completed USD $394 million in Series D funding at a $1.75 billion valuation. The Series D round was led by TCV, one of the largest growth equity firms, with participation from existing investors Citi Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Mouro Capital (formerly Santander Ventures) and Amex Ventures.

It’s a critical time in the identity verification industry, as global demand for digital trust, security and compliance solutions are skyrocketing. This funding will drive the next stage of Trulioo’s rapid global expansion efforts, customer growth and product innovation.

We talked with Trulioo CEO Steve Munford about the Series D funding and what it means for the company, customers and the Trulioo mission of trust, privacy and inclusion.

First off, congratulations! You must be happy.

Thanks! I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in quite a few significant financings and they’re always a lot of work and due diligence, but in the end, the outcome is definitely worth it.

It’s really a team effort and so many people put in so much time and hard work; it’s rewarding to see it all come together. I want to thank everyone involved — all the incredible Trulioo team members, and the investment partners who dug down deep and got this done.

How did Trulioo become the leader in global identity verification?

We focus on the customer and really listen to what their needs are. Then we go about improving the product and make sure it’s solving the problems our customers are actually experiencing. It’s a partnership arrangement; as their needs evolve in response to market demands, technical requirements, use cases and regulatory change, we want to deliver proactively.

There are really two parts that come together to make us who we are: our technology and our people.

Our identity technology is built from the ground up with a global-first approach. To meet our mission, we need technology that can scale, is robust and meets the highest data security and compliance standards. We have API integration, custom rules engine, normalized fields/attributes and other technologies that are all about flexibility for our customers.

But of course, it’s not just technology. It’s about understanding how people use identity verification in the real world. It might seem simple, but it becomes very complicated very quickly. There are so many different requirements and scenarios, so there’s no one magic solution. The only way to understand all the challenges and opportunities is knowledge and experience. That comes down to people. We deal with multiple global markets and numerous compliance, fraud and optimization scenarios every day. We’re more than just a vendor; we’re the expert in verification and digital identity and take our role as a trusted technology partner to organizations very seriously.

It seems to be working well.

It has. Some of the world’s most well-known top-tier brands rely on Trulioo. Our top 10 customers use our solution in 37 countries, and on average, our customers use our solution in 20 countries. This customer usage demonstrates the demand for global identity verification in today’s borderless digital economy.

When I look at the list of brands that we serve — global banks, Fortune 500 companies, rapidly expanding fintech companies ­— I’m amazed and humbled. We work quietly in the background, helping our customers safely and securely serve customers around the world.

Why is this great news for Canada?

It’s rare for any company to get to this level and even more so for Canadian companies. The funding marks one of the largest single rounds in Canada ever and validates what we’ve achieved on a global scale.

It’s great for the Canadian (and especially the Vancouver) tech scenes. Anytime there’s an announcement like this, investors and talent notice ­— and that helps grow the pool for everyone. Vancouver already is a burgeoning tech hub and we are excited to be involved in that and help it grow.

Not only is this financing round the largest financing secured by an identity verification company, it’s also the largest financing round made by TCV.  We hope that’s inspirational to other Canadian companies. On a practical level, businesses and fintech companies can access a Canadian ID verification solution, not only for Canadian coverage, but also for their international growth.

The other thing is that we are independent. We are on our way to becoming a multi-billion-dollar company, which helps put Canada that much more on the map when it comes to innovation and building great companies.

Why did Trulioo choose TCV to lead their Series D investment? 

Trulioo was in an enviable position in terms of our company growth and financial status. Many investment groups pursued us, and we wanted to make sure we picked the best partner for where we want to go. TCV has a deep understanding of the identity verification space, so we’ve formed a natural partnership. Many of their portfolio companies already use Trulioo’s solutions to keep their networks and communities safe from bad actors.

We know TCV has helped some of the most successful tech companies scale, and they have a solid track record. They support companies through their growth cycles, often backing companies before IPO and beyond.

After a lot of deliberation, we determined that TCV is the right investor for Trulioo’s stage of growth and business journey. They’re an excellent fit for our brand and culture. They also have significant influence with distribution and media channels and access to HR and marketing resources that will help propel our growth.

Why did Trulioo choose to raise funds this time? 

It’s an excellent time to raise funds. We were able to be very selective and make sure that we positioned ourselves to continue the upward trajectory and significant growth we’d already been experiencing.

Our vision is to build an end-to-end security platform for multiple verticals. If you look at payment providers, forex, crypto exchanges or marketplaces, we service 80% of the top companies in those sectors. We will continue to improve our services to these industries. But we’re also looking to expand into other industries like healthcare, travel, education and government.

There have been numerous developments in the identity verification and fraud prevention space, with lots of financing and M&A activity in 2021 alone. The global pandemic has pushed identity verification to the forefront for businesses and service providers. Anyone who has a stake in onboarding users and transacting with customers online needs to be thinking strategically about their identity verification programs.

We want to be the one vendor that provides the best coverage, the best technology, the best customer service. We know that to stay on top, we will have to work that much harder and smarter. A big part of that is ensuring we have the funds available to fulfill all our growth priorities.

How will Trulioo use this investment?

The funding enables the next milestone in Trulioo’s long-term vision to build an end-to-end digital identity platform that will make it possible for organizations worldwide to reliably and seamlessly verify identities. The mission is to identify everyone; we know it’s a massive goal, but we strongly feel that everyone should be able to participate in the exciting opportunities that a global, borderless digital economy presents.

Tactically, we will build up our engineering capabilities and invest in product innovation, particularly AI and ML technologies. We will pursue those new verticals and opportunities I already mentioned. And of course, we will continue developing our most importance resource — our people.

How many employees do you have today and what are your hiring plans?

We currently have 240 employees today and plan to increase our employee headcount by 50% before the end of 2021. In the last 12 months, we have expanded our headcount by more than 160%, so you can see we’ve experienced significant growth.

Our HQ is in Vancouver and we have an office in Dublin, Austin, and San Diego with plans to add additional office locations in 2022, including Asia. Visit our career page to see the different open positions across all international teams.

How can potential customers and partners get in touch with Trulioo?

We have many ways to contact us listed on our website:

• Our general Contact Us page has our phone numbers, email addresses and a contact form
• You can book a demo and a representative will contact you to show our services in action
• Visit our partners’ page to learn how best to work with us