Acuant Expands Identity Verification Platform With Hello Soda Acquisition

Identity verification provider Acuant has closed on its purchase of Hello Soda as part of its “continued investment and commitment to innovative technology,” according to a Tuesday (May 4) announcement emailed to PYMNTS.

“Our goal has always been to power trust for all, a vision we share with Hello Soda whom we are excited to welcome to the Acuant family,” Acuant President and CEO Yossi Zekri said in the announcement. “Adding Hello Soda to our Trusted Identity Platform will reach more people today and position us even stronger for the future of digital identity.”

United Kingdom-based Hello Soda provides identity verification and know your customer (KYC) offerings and has a concentration on the European and Asian geographies.

Hello Soda’s technology harnesses data science modeling, matching algorithms and proprietary analytics to offer configurable and composite scoring. As a result, companies can arrive at trusted decisions spanning between the point of onboarding to enhanced due diligence (EDD) in addition to ongoing monitoring.

Moreover, Hello Soda’s dark web solution lessens the impact of impersonation fraud by looking through more than 600 million records on the dark web for a client’s data. It also queries and tracks customer personally identifiable information (PII) against compromised information, according to the announcement.

“Our combined technology will serve us well in our joint mission to democratize trust and provide solutions to reach every sector of the global population, allowing every individual to conduct trusted transactions when and where they wish,” Hello Soda Founder and CEO James Blake said in the announcement.

The news comes as the pandemic has impacted nearly all industry in all business verticals. Even though some sectors such as eateries and physical retail have slowed or even stalled, other areas such as eCommerce have flourished.

In examining the verticals that have thrived, the common thread has been the digital-first mentality. And with that mindset come new rules and a new impetus to make sure that the digital-first client is who they say they are.