Fintech startup, ThisIsMe, announced that it has been selected to participate in this year’s Gartner’s Innovation Programme which forms part of the Gartner Symposium/ITxpo. This is one of the world’s most important gatherings of CIOs and senior IT executives which showcases the latest solutions from key technology providers. It runs in Cape Town from tomorrow until Thursday, 21 September at the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
ThisIsMe enables businesses to reduce fraud, automate FICA/KYC checks, improve onboarding and increase revenue while providing an on-demand, seamless customer experience. ThisIsMe can complete the FICA process in three minutes – an African record.
This fintech attracted $2.5m in funding in 2016 and has processed more than one million verifications. It is expanding into African and international markets and counts Sanlam and Silica as customers. It was also ranked one of the best global regtech companies by the CB Insights team in 2017.
Explains David Thomas, ThisIsMe co-founder and head of product, “Many IT executives rely on Gartner Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organisations can use new technology solutions to address business challenges and we look forward to showcasing our advanced offering.”
Since the launch of ThisIsMe, consumers have said that that they are delighted to skip queues and register new accounts within minutes instead of days, from anywhere in the world. And it’s not only financial institutions that require FICA systems. Businesses in property, retail, eCommerce, SMMEs, gambling and many other sectors require efficient FICA processes.
Says Chirnside. “Until recently, the process to establish and verify the identities of clients has largely been paper based with clients having to arrive at a bank branch, for instance, for face-to-face identification. This tedious process of FICA onboarding has increased costs for institutions to between R300 and R1500 for each client.”
Chirnside says, “ThisIsMe’s digital platform makes it faster, very much more cost effective and there are fewer errors. The entire process is completed digitally, with machine learning technology ensuring that documents aren’t tampered with. In addition, we are able to ensure that a client’s information is regularly updated and secured. With a client’s permission, we are able to verify that a client is indeed who they say they are.”
Institutions need to take this very seriously – if they are proven to do business with a criminal client, the institution is subject to legal action and fines (not just the client). ThisIsMe now offers solutions that allow accountable institutions to be fully FICA compliant with each and every customer, within minutes.
ThisIsMe is a gold member of AlphaCode, a club for fintech entrepreneurs and the fintech investment arm of Rand Merchant Investment Holdings.