PayPal, Accel Back Fraud Detection Startup, Simility

Simility, the fraud detection and risk management startup, has landed $17.5 million in funding.

In a company blog post, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Simility Rahul Pangam said the funding will be used to maintain the “explosive” growth the company has been enjoying. The CEO said that Accel led the round of funding and that PayPal joined the company as a strategic investor. Other fraud and risk experts added to the team include Google, FICO, Cisco, Amazon and RSA.

“In a very short time, Simility has come to be recognized as a thought leader in fraud and risk management,” said Pangam. “Our customers, who span the spectrum from top FinTech innovators to Global Fortune 500 institutions, have validated this view by partnering with us to solve extremely hard problems.”

The executive noted the company has expanded its presence in Europe and Latin America by putting local teams in the region; it’s also rounding out its North American and Asian presence. “Our customers are all over the world, and we’re glad to now have teams close to every one of them. We also plan to significantly staff up our sales and data science teams,” wrote the executive in the blog post.

According to news from VentureBeat, Simility is one of a laundry list of startups that is using machine learning for fraud detection and to collect and analyze digital data. The company’s software is geared toward companies large and small and is designed to prevent different types of fraud, such as account takeover fraud. It can also help prevent account origination fraud, where someone tries to set up a new account with information that was stolen or via fake identities.