SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, announced today that it has invested funds in Hong Kong-based KYC, KYB and data management platform with the aim of accelerating the company’s product development and boosting its sales organisation – both to meet the increasing demand of the global identity verification market for individuals and corporates that is anticipated to be worth US$17 billion by 2026. SC Ventures joins Chekk’s multi-million dollar financing round announced in June this year, led by HSBC and with participation of venture capital firm SOSV.
Alex Manson, head of SC Ventures said : “Chekk already serves as an integral part of SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation, fintech investment and ventures arm, where Chekk has become the go-to KYC/KYB provider for the technology stack of internally built ventures. Chekk not only delivers a digital advantage across multiple stakeholders, it also presents several unique selling points that made it a very attractive investment.
“Chekk has a unique proposition, taking KYB and KYC to another level of capabilities and customer experience, which resonates very well with various parts of Standard Chartered Bank and its partners,” said Pascal Nizri, Co-Founder and CEO of Chekk. “It is rapidly becoming a standard across multiple business units and is also being adopted by various other financial institutions and fintechs around the world.”
The global identity verification market for individuals and corporates was valued at US$8 billion in 2020. It is expected to reach US$17 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 13.29%1 . Major growth drivers of the market include enhanced global regulations in customer due diligence to combat the rise in financial crimes, as well as the need for digitisation of customer onboarding processes. As technology advances, KYC/KYB and AML regulations have been increasing globally with growing demands made of financial services in particular, against the backdrop of a rise in fraudulent activities worldwide.
“Our platform aggregates data sources from around the world (e.g. ‘live’ government corporate registries, global commercial data partners, anti-money laundering lists, ESG data) to feed into a modular ecosystem of advanced capabilities and channels, enabling organizations like financial services providers to manage relationships with business and individual clients.” added Pascal Nizri. “Beyond already being our client, we are delighted to welcome Standard Chartered Bank as investors, to support the expansion of our product suite, teams and client base globally.”
