Payments provider Checkout.com wants to expand its financial services offering with plans to acquire Paris-based digital identity verification (IDV) startup ubble.
Financial details were not disclosed but the deal is slated to close later this year pending regulatory approval.
“ubble was founded with a mission to provide people with the convenience and security of using their personal identity in the digital world – and that is clearly becoming a growing need for e-commerce and crypto merchants, digital wallets, and other fintechs we serve,” explains Meron Colbeci, Chief Product Officer at Checkout.com.
Co-founded in 2018 by CEO François Wyss, CRO Juliette Delanoe and CTO Nicolas Debernardi, ubble has almost 100 people employed in its French offices. It’s not clear if there are any job cuts or changes as part of the acquisition.
The company’s flagship solution enables the automated verification of a user’s identity for over 2,000 types of documents from 214 countries and territories worldwide, using machine learning models.
ubble’s customers include French fintechs, and ride-hailing and delivery apps. Names listed on its website include public investment bank Bpifrance, Banking as a Service platform Treezor and Sofinco, a brand of Crédit Agricole Consumer Finance,
According to London-based Checkout.com, the addition of IDV capabilities will support another “important” aspect of payments: ensuring merchants and fintechs are compliant with local regulations, can verify that their customers are who they say they are, and can stay ahead of potential changes to the EU and global regulatory landscape in the future.
Checkout.com offers a full-stack online platform for enterprise merchants and has been profitable for several years. Clients include Netflix, Farfetch, Grab, NetEase, Pizza Hut, Shein, Siemens and Sony; fintech unicorns such as Klarna, Qonto, Revolut and Zepz; and crypto players like Coinbase, Crypto.com, FTX and MoonPay.
The fintech acquisition follows Checkout.com’s $1 billion (£728 million at the time) Series D funding round in January. The tech firm said at the time the funding would be used in three key areas – the US market, a marketplaces solution launch and for Web3 ambitions.
