“We are changing the digital identity verification paradigm at scale”
Gary Sevounts, CMO, Socure

Over the last few years, KYC has undergone a massive transformation and met unprecedented demand. This is mainly due to the accelerated adoption of digital-first financial transactions in every aspect of our lives with new account openings required at scale. Furthermore, the emergence of Gen Z and millennials, the largest demographic of the nation’s population and, in many cases, are more inclined towards the digital-only ecosystem. Also complicating the account opening process, according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), approximately 45 million people within the US aged 18+ have limited credit history and are considered thin-file or credit-invisible. They need access to services and benefits that they are being shut out of because legacy systems can’t accurately identify them. This has made legacy KYC solutions that overly rely on credit-bureau data obsolete. 

Resolving these issues, Socure reinvented the KYC space and achieved unparalleled adoption and growth as the only solution to address these key challenges. “Socure achieved this by delivering the only patented ML-driven identity verification solution based on our unique graph-centric platform, that leverages data sources far beyond credit bureaus, including streaming, higher-education, Military Lending Act, eCBSV, and more than 200+ other authoritative sources,” says Gary Sevounts. 

Socure has redefined how KYC processes are completed today. The company has made achieving auto-approval rates of up to 98% across all ages and demographics and up to 94% for the hard-to-identify populations such as Gen Z, millennial, credit invisible, thin-file, and new-to-country as seamless as it can be. “Socure delivers immediate ROI to our customers by expanding margins in two key ways that include capturing additional revenue otherwise lost to false rejects and user dropoff caused by unnecessary friction and by drastic reductions in expensive, tedious manual reviews,” adds Sevounts.  

According to Sevounts, technology companies are continually challenged to tell a story beyond just detailing product features, but this is not the case at Socure. The company’s view is that KYC is, now more than ever, more than just a compliance checkbox, and it doesn’t have to be complex or rife with friction or bias. Put simply, Socure has truly transformed KYC into an opportunity for revenue generation as the company revolutionizes KYC accuracy and auto-approval rates for every good identity across every demographic while optimizing the digital customer experience. In addition, Socure enables the KYC compliance officer to become a hero in their organization as a business and growth enabler, not just someone who drives compliance with current regulations and requirements.

While explaining the company’s value proposition and Sevounts’ role, he recalls a few instances that highlight the power of Socure’s solutions. A top-tier online brokerage increased their auto-acceptance rate by 10%, adding $55 million in incremental annual revenue after deploying Socure. In another instance, Socure’s KYC solution increased a top online gaming operator’s auto-acceptance by over 7%, generating millions of new customers and $75 million in incremental annual revenue. As a result of these dynamics, Socure emerged as the clear leader in the identity verification, KYC, and compliance spaces—all interrelated areas. The company closed out the year with over 1,000 customers, including 4 of the 5 largest banks and 7 of the 10 largest credit card issuers. Socure also became the highest-valued company in the identity verification space, with a $4.5B valuation, gaining backing from the world’s top investors, including Accel, T. Rowe Price Inc., Bain Capital Ventures, Tiger Global, and others. 

When it comes to the success formula of Socure and Sevounts, without a doubt, it’s the industry-leading accuracy of our platform in combination with our team’s deep AI and ML expertise plus ROI. Our KYC solution reduces false positives, manual reviews, and customer friction, allowing Socure customers to drive tens of millions of dollars in incremental revenue by onboarding more good consumers quickly. “More than 25% of our organization are data scientists, and everyone that’s on the team is the best in their respective industry. We amplify customer success stories through impactful case studies demonstrating ROI, educational webinars on best practices, and through traditional and social media amplification,” adds Sevounts. 

Socure has received numerous industry awards and accolades, including being ranked as the fastest-growing identity verification company in North America. Enterprises of all sizes are looking to make an impact by solving problems with market-leading technologies like Socure’s. The team accomplishes this by working closely with its customers to redefine risk mitigation and provide seamless onboarding. “As part of our future endeavors, we partner with enterprises, government agencies, and any entity looking for broad coverage, inclusiveness, and a seamless customer onboarding experience. We are moving from a world of checkbox compliance and complexity, lack of inclusion and accuracy, and transforming KYC into an area of opportunity for inclusion, bias elimination, growth, and revenue generation. This is why I’m excited—we are changing the digital identity verification paradigm at scale,” concludes Sevounts.