NEW YORK, April 17, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Payfone, an
award-winning digital identity authentication leader, today
announced the closing of a $24
million funding round led by TransUnion (NYSE: TRU), a
global leader in information solutions, with participation from
existing investors Synchrony (NYSE: SYF), a premier consumer
financial services company; MassMutual Ventures, the venture fund
of leading mutual life insurance company Massachusetts Mutual Life
Insurance Company (MassMutual); and Wellington Management
LLP.
TransUnion's investment in Payfone underscores a new strategic
partnership that will leverage the two companies' complementary
missions and capabilities to accelerate the global digital
economy.
TransUnion will enhance its existing IDVision® with iovation®
suite of products by integrating Payfone's Trust Platform™ and
Trust Score™, enabling businesses to overcome the historical
tradeoff between security, convenience, and privacy. Payfone also
announced that TransUnion will become Payfone's primary partner for
regulated identity verification information.
Despite the fact that it is estimated that 98% of online
transactions are legitimate, the digital economy suffers from a
'Trust Gap' in which the fear of cyberattacks, synthetic fraud, and
stolen identities leads to falsely declined transactions and
ever-mounting fraud losses. Powerful, proprietary
algorithms enable Payfone's Trust Score™ to close the Trust
Gap, allowing businesses to approve more transactions instantly,
while thwarting fraud.
"The fear of identity fraud and cyberattacks holds the
digital economy back from its full potential," said Rodger Desai, CEO of Payfone. "For example,
in lending, it's striking that today five times more loan
applications are approved in-person than on-line, despite credit
worthiness. With our partnership with TransUnion, we can now
leverage TransUnion's footprint of more than 30 countries to help
expand our Trust Score™ around the globe, allowing billions
of additional consumers to safely access digital services."
"We've had a relationship with Payfone since 2017,
recognizing the incredible value they bring to fraud prevention.
Within this new strategic partnership, we anticipate supporting
Payfone's expansion to new markets and looking at other uses of
their products throughout our organization, said Geoff Miller, Senior Vice President of Global
Fraud and Identity Solutions, TransUnion. "We are
both committed to protecting consumers, focusing on data
privacy and building trust with our customers, and the combination
of our solutions will create a better, more seamless
experience for everyone."
In March, Payfone announced the next phase of their
Zero-Knowledge architecture, which enables identity verification
partners, such as mobile network operators, to verify consumer and
business identities without consumer information being passed,
stored, or aggregated. In 2018, the company authenticated 20
billion transactions for Fortune 500 companies using this
privacy-first approach, and it expects to double that number in
2019. Click here to learn more about Payfone's privacy-first Bill
of Trust.
As part of the funding round, Miller will join Payfone's Board
of Directors.
About Payfone
Payfone's award-winning Trust Platform™ and Trust Score™ bring
trust to the digital economy by enabling businesses to instantly
verify customers while thwarting fraud and cyberattacks in
real-time; all within a privacy-first, zero-knowledge framework.
Payfone serves 6 of the top 10 US financial institutions, and
leading healthcare, insurance, technology and retail companies.
Learn more at payfone.com and
linkedin.com/company/payfone.
About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
Information is a powerful thing. At TransUnion, we realize that.
We are dedicated to finding innovative ways information can be used
to help individuals make better and smarter decisions. We help
uncover unique stories, trends and insights behind each data point,
using historical information as well as alternative data sources.
This allows a variety of markets and businesses to better manage
risk and consumers to better manage their credit, personal
information and identity. Today, TransUnion has a global presence
in more than 30 countries and a leading presence in several
international markets across North
America, Africa,
Europe, Latin America and Asia. Through the power of information,
TransUnion is working to build stronger economies and families and
safer communities worldwide.
We call this Information for GoodSM.
www.transunion.com
Press Contact:
Yuka Yoneda
yyoneda@payfone.com
212.614.6927
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/payfone-raises-24-million-announces-strategic-partnership-with-transunion-to-add-security-convenience-and-privacy-to-digital-experiences-around-the-globe-300833436.html
SOURCE Payfone