Fraud-Prevention Platform Sift Raises $50 Million, Valued At Over $1 Billion

Sift, which works in digital safety, has ended a new funding round and raised $50 million, according to a press release. The company is now valued at over $1 billion.

Private equity firm Insight Partners led the round, and there was participation from Union Square Ventures and Stripes, the release stated.

With the new funding, Sift plans to keep expanding the company portfolio and scaling its product, engineering and sales teams around the world, according to the release.

The pandemic has helped fraudsters level up their abuse tactics, with fraud vectors having evolved past a siloed strategy and instead into a “vast, crowded and interconnected network” that the release called the “fraud economy.”

Many fraud prevention teams, however, do not come equipped with the right resources as their tech is outdated and limited, the release stated. Enterprises become vulnerable to new kinds of abuse and losses as a result.

The new situation has forced some merchants into a “false choice” of either preventing fraud or creating a seamless customer experience, according to the release.

“Legacy, rules-based approaches to fighting fraud can’t defend against the sophisticated fraud economy that has dramatically expanded and evolved in parallel with digital commerce over the last year,” said Sift President and CEO Marc Olesen in the release. “With this new investment, we can continue to build out our digital trust and safety platform to help merchants not only fight all types of fraud and abuse, but reduce friction for legitimate customers and grow revenue.”

Kevin Lee, head trust and safety architect at Sift, spoke with PYMNTS last month about the need for a “proactive, collaborative” approach to fighting illicit dark web types of services. He said there is a network of fraud marketplaces using methods to let fraudsters access stolen data, sometimes using apps like Telegram to do so in plain sight.

Lee said food delivery companies have seen an oversized amount of fraud, with food and delivery apps being easy targets because of the instant gratification.