Business identity platform Niva has launched after raising $3.3 million for its verification solution, according to a news release on Monday (July 8).
According to the release, screening for fraud and verifying the identity of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) by meeting domestic and international know-your-business (KYB) requirements has been a major source of friction.
“The current process is almost entirely manual, flawed, varies significantly between countries and often requires weeks of email back and forth between Niva’s customers and the small businesses applying to use the product,” the release said.
The company says it meets a growing need for a next-generation platform for companies trying to operate under these constraints.
According to the release, businesses can use Niva’s compliance and fraud prevention AI agents to shorten onboarding cycles from weeks to less than 10 minutes, increase application conversion rates by providing a better onboarding experience, and eliminate the need to train operations teams on multiple languages, local laws and fraud tactics.
“Streamlining KYB has always been at the core of our business,” Sebastian Kreis, CEO and founder of Latin American B2B fintech company Xepelin, said in the release. “In just a few months, Niva’s AI has been able to accelerate our onboarding to the next level. It’s clear that the team has extensive experience in this field and we’re excited about our continued partnership.”
PYMNTS explored the importance of KYB in a report last month, noting that KYB is a process that involves the collection and analysis of large amounts of data, including company registration details, financial records, ownership structures and regulatory compliance.
Scott Steinberg, who was Enigma Technologies’ chief operating officer at the time, told PYMNTS that KYB’s tactics were evolving, with an increasing need to use technology to address “best practices” and comply with both existing and new laws.
KYB may have once been “an informal ‘sister’ or ‘brother’ of the Know Your Customer (KYC) initiative, but KYB has become much more important,” he said.
“If the customer has to go through a lot of friction to pass KYB’s inspection, [however]”There will be churn in the application process,” he added. “There will be churn in the registration process.”
Additionally, the report noted that observers believe artificial intelligence (AI) will revolutionize the KYB and B2B onboarding process, providing organizations with automation, accuracy, and insight into the identity of the companies they are doing business with.
“With B2B partnerships and online marketplaces driving growth across the industry, innovation in business verification and improved onboarding processes are becoming increasingly important pieces of the growth puzzle for companies,” the report states.
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