Equal has a plan to fight India's growing cyber fraud problem
Equal, an Indian startup founded by Keshav Reddy, has raised $10M in its maiden funding round led by Prosus Ventures to scale identity verification and financial data sharing.
India, the world’s most populous country and the second-largest internet market after China, is becoming increasingly digitally active. However, this rapid digitization comes with a growing risk of online fraud.
Cyber fraud is mounting in India to the point where the Indian government estimates it could amount to 0.7% of the country’s GDP — over $14 billion — within the next year. Even the government-backed systems, including Aadhaar, have been targeted by bad actors in some cases.
New Delhi keeps introducing new regulatory requirements to limit fraudulent digital transactions. Nonetheless, these updates often place a burden on businesses to regularly update their tech. Efforts to eradicate digital fraud sometimes also result in disruptions. For instance, the recent clampdown on unauthorized use of the permanent account number disrupted transactions for some fintech platforms.
Equal, a Hyderabad-based startup, aims to address all this with its suite of identity verification and financial data-sharing products.
The two-year-old startup helps businesses streamline know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, fraud prevention, and regulatory compliance by integrating more than 50 identity databases and thousands of API providers. The startup also recently acquired an undisclosed stake in account aggregator OneMoney to combine its identity verification services with the latter’s consent-based financial data sharing.
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