Checkout.com to Acquire French IDV Firm ubble

Checkout.com announced Thursday (May 12) it plans to acquire French digital identity verification (IDV) startup ubble in an effort to expand its financial services offering.

The London cloud-based payments provider said in a news release that the deal, due to close later this year, comes amid an increase in global online transaction volumes and a corresponding rise of fraud and money laundering.

“The acquisition of ubble will enable Checkout.com to expand its current suite of financial products that allows FinTechs and eCommerce merchants to accept and send payments to and from their customers, while managing the financial risk involved,” the company said.

Checkout.com added that offering IDV capabilities will also ensure merchants and FinTechs are compliant with local regulations, can verify that customers are who they say, and can keep on top of potential changes to regulations in the EU and around the world.

Read more: Protecting Retail Customer Data With Digital Identity Verification

Founded in 2018, ubble’s solution allows for the automated verification of a user’s identity for more than 2000 types of documents from 214 countries and territories. Meron Colbeci, chief product officer at Checkout.com, said his company was impressed with ubble’s use of machine-learning innovation and engineering talent.

PYMNTS looked at the importance of IDV last week in our conversation with Mark Spencer, senior vice president of commercial operations at fashion retailer Jane.

“It’s a cat-and-mouse game,” Spencer said. “As quick as we find systems to stop fraudulent activity or make life easier for customers, there are bad actors that are out there looking to circumvent it. There’s a lot of time, money and effort [being] spent on keeping consumer data and consumer information private.”