PORTLAND, Ore., Jan. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- SheerID, the market leader in verification technology enabling digital trust for the enterprise, is excited to announce the close of an $18 million Series B investment round led by Silicon Valley and New York-based investment firm, Centana Growth Partners. The investment will continue to fuel product innovation and accelerate market adoption across all digital commerce categories.
SheerID provides enterprises a comprehensive digital verification platform that instantly verifies credentials of individuals or businesses using authoritative data sources, all within an organization’s brand experience. With SheerID, enterprises can deliver exclusive offers and experiences to high value segments such as the military, students and teachers, while mitigating discount fraud and reducing friction in the user experience. Centana Growth Partners will be joining Voyager Capital on SheerID’s board, which led its previous financing in 2015 and participated in this round, along with Arnold Venture Group.
“Our investment in SheerID falls squarely into Centana’s authentication and identity expertise, and we’re excited to work with a team whose experience, knowledge, and customer relationships give it an incredible competitive edge in today’s market,” said Eric Byunn, Partner at Centana Growth Partners. “The company’s impressive growth trajectory and comprehensive platform capabilities, coupled with the size of the market, make it an investment we look forward to seeing reach its full potential.”
The funding allows SheerID to continue to capitalize on recent momentum. By the end of 2017, the company was experiencing 112% year over year growth, while adding an impressive array of new customers to its already robust client list. In the last year, SheerID has added Lowe’s, Target, Microsoft, Adobe, Sprint, and TOMS to their client list, joining other Fortune 500 companies including Spotify, Foot Locker, Costco, and Amazon. Centana’s focus on financial services will help SheerID continue to penetrate additional market segments.
“Lowe’s is dedicated to going the extra mile for our military community, and we are always looking to improve our Military customer experiences, which is why we partnered with SheerID: to bring our Military Loyalty Program to life,” said Ryan Fagan, Director of Sales and Operations Planning at Lowe’s. “Through this partnership, we can now deliver a seamless and easy enrollment experience, empowering loyalty strategies like exclusive offers to the military community online and in-store.”
In addition to bringing on new customers, SheerID has also expanded its team to more than 50 employees, and will continue to grow in various areas of the business including marketing, sales, engineering, and others. The team has also made a number of notable executive hires, including that of Sai Koppala, its new Chief Marketing Officer. Koppala is a Silicon Valley veteran with over 20 years in the business, with marketing and product leadership roles at global technology companies including Google Cloud, SAP and Sun Microsystems. He also led Marketing at Proximity Corp., which was acquired by Apple, and most recently for Apigee, a leading API management provider, which was acquired by Google in 2016.
“We’re so proud of how far we’ve come, and even more proud of the happy clients who continue to renew and expand their use of our platform,” says Jake Weatherly, CEO of SheerID. “Our solution specifically addresses the challenges many enterprises face when establishing trust with their customers, and this funding will accelerate both the capabilities of our platform, as well as support the growth of our incredible team to continue addressing our clients’ needs. We appreciate the support from all of our investors and board members who share our vision of redefining how enterprises create trust in a changing, highly digitalized world.”
For more information about SheerID and its digital verification platform, please visit https://www.sheerid.com/.
About SheerID
SheerID’s leading digital verification platform instantly verifies the identity of individuals and businesses, enabling enterprises to deliver authenticated offers and experiences to high-value customer segments while mitigating fraud and minimizing friction. By using authoritative data sources to verify credentials in real-time within an organization’s brand experience, SheerID delivers a seamless customer experience that reduces churn and fuels loyalty to drive revenue growth. As a result, the world’s biggest brands – including Spotify, Foot Locker and Microsoft – rely on SheerID as their trusted verification partner. Founded in 2011, SheerID is backed by Voyager Capital and Centana Growth Partners.
About Centana Growth Partners
Centana is a unique growth equity firm that invests in the future of financial services. We partner with firms across the entire financial ecosystem, from institutions to fintech disruptors. Centana connects our portfolio companies to a catalyzing community that can help accelerate business growth. With offices in Palo Alto and New York, the Centana team taps into decades of financial services expertise and insight to find partner firms that bring real value and innovation into the industry.
Katie Keller
(619) 559-9144
katie@sheerid.com