Vouched, a Seattle startup that helps companies verify identity, raised $6.3 million.
The funding round was led by BHG VC and SpringRock Ventures as well as prior investors Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, co-founders of e-commerce giant Zulily.
The 30-employee company was spun out of Madrona Venture Labs, the accelerator based at Madrona Venture Group in Seattle, and now serves more than 300 banks, fintech companies and healthcare providers.
Vouched’s software analyzes images of photo identity documents including passports and driver’s licenses. The technology compares a user’s selfie to confirm identity. It also examines text such as addresses. The idea is to provide fraud detection of a person in real-time.
Customers include Hims Health and Alloy, which helps financial companies make fraud, credit and compliance decisions.
“We look forward to enhancing the value of our identity verification platform to the healthcare market, and ensuring we remain a trusted partner-of-choice for businesses in highly regulated markets,” said CEO John Baird in a statement Monday announcing the new funding.
Baird, a former Blue Nile and WE Communications executive, founded Vouched in 2018 with John Cao, who left the company in 2021.
Other startups deploying ID verification technology include Eugene, Ore.-based SheerID, Vancouver, B.C.-based Trulioo, Seattle-based AuthenticID, which raised $100 million in 2021, and OCR Labs.
Vouched differentiates from competitors with proprietary AI models that help identify more than 99% of known fraud cases, according to a spokesperson. The new funding brings the total raised by the startup to more than $18 million.
Cavens was CEO of Zulily, which sold to QVC parent Liberty Interactive for $2.4 billion in 2015. Vadon also founded Blue Nile and served as chairman of online pet products retailer Chewy. He was CEO of a “blank check company” that raised $300 million but did not find a merger partner.
Cavens and Vadon have also invested together in another Seattle startup, Rad Power Bikes.
