Fraud Prevention Specialist Mitek Acquires HooYu for US$128m

Digital identity (ID) verification and fraud prevention specialist Mitek has announced that they acquired UK-based leading KYC (know your customer) technology company HooYu. With the acquisition. Mitek aimed to help businesses know better the true identity of their customers by implementing biometric verification with real-time bureau and sanction database checks.

According to the United Nations (UN), every year, around 3% of the world’s GDP, which amounts to almost two trillion dollars, falls victim to money laundering. The rise of cryptocurrency and NFT markets has also enabled criminals to garner more avenues and incentives from the activity. There is, then, the need to identify and stop sanctioned and politically exposed people (PEP) from interacting with businesses.

“Our current geopolitical, commercial and technological environment represents a perfect storm for bad actors. Mitek is leading the fight against fraud by providing the technology that businesses need to stamp out digital money launderers and sanctioned individuals,” said Mitek Systems CEO Max Carnecchia in a press release. “The only way to combat this scourge is to use artificial intelligence (AI) and stop bad transactions before they happen.”

Adapting advanced KYC technologies into Mitek

By matching biometrics, ID document validation, geolocation and identity confidence scoring with real-time data signals, including bureau checks, the acquisition aims to help businesses gain a more detailed profile of their customers. HooYu’s expertise in KYC technologies is expected to help Mitek’s customers be more confident in making transactions across various channels.

“Having a single platform that easily orchestrates and configures a KYC journey to manage identities and identify bad actors is becoming a prerequisite for any business transacting digitally,” said HooYu CEO Keith Marsden in the same press release. “Bringing together Mitek’s lead in identity, liveness, and biometrics, with our orchestration, configuration and journey services simplify identity management for financial institutions.”

MarketsandMarkets has predicted in their Digital Identity Solutions report that the global identity solutions market would grow to US$49.5bn by 2026 from US$23.3bn in 2021, making the industry’s setting a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.2%. The growth is backed by the increase in identity-related frauds and data breaches.

“Mitek builds trust in the digital world, which we need now more than ever,” Carnecchia continued. “This past year, Mitek continued to demonstrate our commitment to fighting fraud – both with the acquisition of ID R&D and now with HooYu. 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.”