Mitek acquires HooYu for £98 million to help businesses combat fraud
Mitek announced the acquisition of UK’s KYC (know your customer) technology pioneers, HooYu. The acquisition helps to ensure businesses know the true identity of their customers by linking biometric verification with real-time bureau and sanction database checks.
The United Nations (UN) estimates that up to *three percent of the world’s GDP – or nearly two trillion dollars – is money laundered annually. The increased regulatory eye, together with the rise in cryptocurrency and NFT markets, means criminals have more avenues and more incentive than ever to launder their money. The need to identify and stop sanctioned and politically exposed people (PEP) from interacting with business has never been greater. As sanction lists continue to update, enterprises grapple with continuing to stay compliant.
“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 Max Carnecchia, CEO Mitek Systems. “The only way to combat this scourge is to use artificial intelligence (AI) and stop bad transactions before they happen.”
Through this acquisition, organizations gain a more complete picture of the consumer by marrying biometrics, ID document validation, geolocation and identity confidence scoring with real-time data signals such as bureau checks or matches to politically exposed person or sanction lists. HooYu’s innovative orchestration capabilities will enable Mitek customers to optimize workflows and accelerate the deployment of identity solutions across 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. “Bringing together Mitek’s lead in identity, liveness and biometrics, with our orchestration, configuration and journey services simplifies identity management for financial institutions.”
The global digital identity solutions market size is projected to grow from USD 23.3 Billion in 2021 to USD 49.5 Billion by 2026, recording a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.2% from 2021 to 2026. The market’s growth can be attributed to the increase in instances of identity-related frauds and data breaches and the need for compliance with various upcoming regulations.
“Mitek builds trust in the digital world, which we need now more than ever,” added Carnecchia. “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.”