Equal is a Hyderabad-based startup that has developed a plan to combat the increasing cyber fraud problem in India.
With India being the world’s most populous country and the second largest internet market after China, there is a growing digital activity which also brings an escalating risk of online fraud.
Cyber fraud in India is on the rise, with the Indian government estimating it could reach as high as 0.7% of the country’s GDP, equivalent to over $14 billion, in the coming year. Even government-backed systems like Aadhaar have been targeted by bad actors in certain instances.
New Delhi has been implementing new regulatory requirements to tackle fraudulent digital transactions, although these updates can place a burden on companies to regularly update their technology, sometimes causing disruption. For instance, the recent campaign against unauthorized use of the permanent account number troubled transactions for some fintech platforms. Equal, as a two-year-old startup, aims to address these challenges with its suite of identity verification and financial data sharing products.
The startup helps businesses streamline know-your-customer (KYC) requirements, fraud prevention, and regulatory compliance by integrating over 50 identity databases and thousands of application programming interface (API) providers. Moreover, Equal recently acquired a stake in account aggregator OneMoney to integrate its identity verification services with consent-based financial data sharing.
Keshav Reddy, the founder of Equal, highlighted the significance of digital consent-based data sharing in the country. Equal was founded by Reddy and former Swiggy engineering director Rajeev Ranjan after their return to India from the US.
During the past two years, Equal, which has been bootstrapped by Reddy, has gained over 350 clients, including major names like State Bank of India, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Jio, Airtel, Uber, and Zoom.
The startup recently completed a Series A funding round, raising $10 million at a post-cash valuation of $80 million. This funding will be used to expand its operations, diversify the product portfolio, and establish strategic partnerships. The funding round was led by Prosus Ventures, Tomales Bay Capital, and Reddy himself, with the participation of other investors including Blume Ventures, DST Global, Gruhas VC, and Quona VC.
In the competitive landscape, Equal operates as an aggregator and collaborates with some of its competitors, distinguishing itself from other players in the market like Perfios (backed by Warburg Pincus and Teachers’ Venture Growth), IDfy (backed by TransUnion), and Bureau (backed by GMO VenturePartners).
Ravi Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Upstox, an early investor in Equal, highlighted the significance of cost and uptime as factors contributing to their decision to engage with the identity verification and account aggregator. He also mentioned the potential of exploring similar technology within Upstox.
Upstox has been utilizing Equal for approximately a year and processes around 350,000 transactions per month. Before adopting Equal, the platform relied on existing identity verification providers, according to Kumar.
Kumar also praised Equal’s ability to integrate across numerous APIs and maintain high uptime across various connections, which has been a valuable aspect for their operations.