Existing investors Commerce Ventures, GMO Venture Partners, Village Global, Quona Capital and XYZ Ventures also participated in the round.
While this is primarily a fresh infusion into the company, there is a small secondary component where some of Bureau’s early investors and employees have sold their shares. This round takes the overall funding raised by the company to around $50 million.
The funds will be used to build new products, strengthen the technology stack, and also focus on expanding operations outside India, Bureau CEO Ranjan R. Reddy told ET.
“We are focused on building tools which can help brands collect data in a compliant fashion, run analytics on those data sets by using artificial intelligence and advanced tools,” he added.
Bureau competes with the likes of IDfy, DigiO, Signzy and others who are all regtech (regulatory technology) startups which help regulated entities adhere to financial sector guidelines regarding customer onboarding and services.
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Beyond India, Bureau is operational in five geographies that currently contribute to less than 50% of its business. “That share will change. We will generate more growth outside India as well, while we remain bullish on the growth opportunities in the local market,” Reddy said.
Bureau has clients in the banking and financial services sector and is also working with companies in the ecommerce domain, payments and marketplace business.
“We are seeing more traction now in quick commerce, the gig economy sector, insurance, gaming and such places where the need for identity verification is becoming very crucial for their business,” he added.
The 2020-founded startup focuses on building a data repository through which it helps brands onboard customers, validate them, verify their credentials and such. It also helps banks detect mule accounts through a technology platform and helps undertake KYC (Know Your Customer) formalities while onboarding customers.
The company has around 100 employees across North America and India, and plans to grow this base by another 50% over the next one year.
“We are not profitable yet, since we are still in our growth stage, but we have grown our business and our revenue two to three times every year and we want to continue on that growth trajectory,” Reddy said.
At a time when fraud attacks are rising in a rapidly digitising India, the role of startups like Bureau assumes greater significance, and venture funds are opening up to back them. In March, IDfy closed a $27-million funding round from a bunch of new investors. Signzy also raised around $26 million in March this year. Last year DigiO, which is backed by Zerodha’s Rainmatter, sold a minority stake to wealthtech major Groww for around $12 million.
