Imagine a world where every individual self-checks into a hotel, remotely opens a bank account, or hops into a rental car without any face-to-face interaction.

While highly convenient, this can only be possible if identities can be accurately validated online. Now, as we continue to experience the boom of digital-first, self-serve and contactless experiences, levels of fraud have significantly increased.

PwC’s 2020 Global Economic Crime and Fraud survey found that 47% of respondents experienced fraud in the last 24 months, and this is expected to climb.

Experian has found that synthetic ID fraud, which involves creating an entirely new identity, is now the fastest-growing type of financial crime. These synthetic identities can include fake ‘faces’ that can fool, or spoof, facial recognition technologies. As a result, KYC and authentication needs are now more important than ever.

Artificial intelligence can be trained to detect spoofs, but this requires millions of photos over thousands of hours of training. The results also need to be accurate, to limit false positives or negatives. Given the difficulty of achieving this high degree of efficacy, almost all start-ups that we have met within this space still rely on traditional OCR methods that have a "human in the loop." Quite simply, while AI can be used, humans are still needed to accurately verify an identity. The challenge with this is that the human verification process cannot scale at the booming rate of digital and online growth. At this point, verification and authentication needs to be automated.

When we met Incode, it was hard to believe that it had solved this exact problem, achieving both accuracy and full automation.

Incode’s AI produces efficacy with such a high degree of accuracy, that it represents the next stage of AI beyond having to leverage human judgment. To validate this, its technology is even recognized as one of the best in the world by the United States Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

Incode’s digital ID verification and authentication solution incorporates dozens of discrete tests in a flexible and configurable platform. This secure, biometric identity platform is the first-of-its-kind, meaning that it can allow enterprises to combine over 60 different components to create their own unique onboarding journeys. Features like capture, identity verification, authentication, KYC compliance and risk control are all offered through unique pricing models and enable seamless access. Most importantly, it is fully automated, meaning that it can easily scale across many verticals like banking, healthcare, retail, travel, or others.

FRAMEWORK is incredibly excited to announce our investment in Incode. While the technology is proven to be best-in-class, we are just as compelled by Incode’s world-class CEO and team. CEO Ricardo Amper has deep entrepreneurial experience and the foresight to recognize the early value of facial recognition solutions. The rest of the team is equally impressive, with extensive backgrounds in both technology and global sales.

As the world continues to embrace self-service applications, the need for online verification and authentication will continue to grow. We believe that Incode is well-positioned to power this change, providing the needed assurance of accurate verification and authentication at scale. We are excited to join the team’s journey. We welcome Ricardo Amper, Jovan Jovanovic, Jesse Franklin, and the rest of the Incode team to the Framework family!

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