Persona raises $17.5 million

Persona , the identity verification (IDV) startup on a mission to secure every internet transaction, announced a $17.5 million Series A round from Coatue and First Round Capital.

Founded in 2018 and based in San Francisco, Persona offers a comprehensive suite of fully-automated identity verification components with worldwide coverage (192 countries and 8 languages) that can be configured, themed, and branded to create custom-tailored flows that cover any use case.

Led by former Square engineer Rick Song and former Dropbox engineer Charles Yeh, one of Persona’s main selling points is reducing the liability that comes with accessing personal data. The startup helps companies verify people while minimizing the data these companies have access to, protecting both sides of any online interaction. Persona also reduces the time and resources it takes to verify customers by offering a solution that can be integrated with 10 lines of code versus integrating with “100+ partners.”

One Persona customer is fintech startup Petal. “Persona integrates in days compared to months, and provides the flexibility to pivot to any use case while providing a clean and easy experience for our customers. Persona does a great job of enabling us to address know your customer requirements, while at the same time helping us to oversee the associated data management responsibilities.” – Alex Constantino, fraud manager at Petal.

“With all transactions going online, Internet identity requires more than a one-size-fits-all approach, especially with deep fakes and synthetic identity fraud on the rise. Persona’s customizable, secure and easy to use approach is also the first identity platform that prioritizes our customers, treating people like people, not user IDs.” – Rick Song, CEO and cofounder of Persona.