Digital Know your customer (KYC) verifications are all set to be the next big vertical, as India progresses towards a digital future. With the rise of Aadhaar and digital methods of processing data, it has now become possible to develop industry-leading KYC systems for use in the subcontinent.
One of the well-known companies for identity verification and user onboarding in India, Veri5Digital is making considerable strides in the space. With one of the fastest onboarding times of any digital KYC company, and full compliance with regulation, Veri5Digital is building the foundation of the next generation of KYC.
Veri5Digital is an initiative by Bengaluru-based incubator and innovation centre Khosla Labs, and was previously known as Aadhaar Bridge. Analytics India Magazine reached out to Ms. Saru Tumuluri, CEO, Khosla Labs, to know more about Veri5’s latest moves.
Shift from Aadhar Bridge to Veri5Digital
The company has been operating in the KYC space for a while now, focusing on a 100% digital and instant KYC solution. They also have an emphasis on accurate data extraction and validation process, using technologies such as OCR to do so.
They are at the cutting edge of using emerging technologies for KYC processes. Overall, the company provides services such as ID using videos for KYC, eSignature options, Aadhaar based KYC and a vault service, along with a service known as eNach.
In Tumuluri’s words,
“We provide a platform where we host the technology platform for Aadhaar licensed entities such as Banks, Insurers, Telcos, etc.”
The solutions can be tailored to the needs of the customer, and highly increases the speed of onboarding while ensuring complete compliance with Aadhaar ordinances.
The solutions can not only extract data from most government issued ID cards such as Aadhaar, PAN, driving license and more, it can also perform ID classification and forgery checks. Veri5’s Services also provide database checks for the given ID.
This is used in conjunction with either a selfie photo or a selfie video for liveness check. This also creates a backup in the form of a video message for non-repudiation purposes. The platform makes heavy use of AI in many of the products, she revealed. Tumuliri went on to say
“Our video ID KYC solution is completely driven using AI. We do a bunch of things such as Document classification, ID card forgery checks, Liveness check, and a Live Selfie capture, and Face biometrics match to do authentication.”
Redefining KYC
They are not just a user of these technologies. In fact, Veri5Digital boasts of having developed the world’s most accurate facial recognition algorithm.
Tumuluri stated that this improvement was gained through “continuous re-learning”, going on to say,
“Our models are extensively trained on Indian data including PAN cards, Voter ID Cards, Passports, Aadhaar, and other datasets. The best Face algorithms excel at accuracy (across different lighting/angles of capture), blurriness, diversity, and occlusions.”
The success of this solution is mentioned in terms of accuracy numbers. The factors taken into consideration were low false acceptance rate and false rejection rates. Moreover, the area under curve is also low, increasing the overall accuracy of the algorithm.
All IDs in the Indian context are able to be detected, along with the aforementioned database checks. Along with this, they completely support in-person verification methods through a web portal. This is when an agent can see the data and check it for integrity.
The move forward of Veri5Digital represents the movement of KYC procedures in India. Just a few years ago, most of the KYC procedures were done using paper-based methods. This changed with the introduction of Aadhaar. Tumuluri said,
“With Aadhaar, businesses could digitize the process of KYC and lower costs to make it economically viable to provide services to the underserved and unserved masses.”
Regulation also seems to be moving in this direction, she stated. Elaborating, she said,
“Few regulators have opened up Video KYC already. SEBI, RBI, IRDA and others have initiated the process of having a regulatory sandbox and testing out these solutions.”
Increasing Market And Financial Inclusivity
This is the need of the hour for businesses. With a rising need for compliance with newer ordinances and regulatory advancements, businesses need to keep up with the latest advancements in KYC. Tumuluri stated,
“Businesses want a digital and a low-cost solution which gives a high degree of assurance.”
Veri5Digital’s clients also show an image of being at the cutting edge of solutions today. With a variety of fintechs such as Novopay, PhonePe, Ola, Cashify, LendingKart and more under its belt, Veri5Digital aims to provide accessible financial solutions.
At the basis of all this is their drive for financial inclusivity in the country. This was the idea from the conceptualization of the company itself. This also seems to be an attitude that the company wants to take forward with its newest offerings. Elaborating on this, Tumuluri said,
“We plan to introduce multiple other ID proofs such as ration cards, MNREGA cards, along with supporting multilingual applications to expand the reach of our solutions.”
