Mastercard Buys Identity Verification Company Ekata For $850 million

The need for online identity management has grown meteorically these past few years. On Monday, Mastercard purchased identity verification company Ekata for the sum of $850 million.

The times have changed, especially with the coronavirus pandemic that caused a lot of rapid and global changes. As more people use the internet (to conduct business), there is need for more security and online identity verification. Companies such as Mastercard know that there is a massive transformation happening in the space of online commerce, and that even after the coronavirus pandemic is over, no business is going back to the old way of carrying out its operations.

Buying identity verification company Ekata is a smart decision because it will provide the means to verify the online identity of a person making transactions take place in real-time as Ekata’s signals can be used to notify Mastercard if a person is true as they open and go about with transactions on the platform. Ekata provides a score and other data that foretells if a person is fraudulent or not; it verifies the online identity of people.

Ekata was formerly known as White Page Pro and was rebranded as Ekata in June 2019. According to data from Pitchfork and Crunchbase, the company has not raised additional money and the $850 million is a great deal for a company that has remained rather stagnant. Ekata has reputable companies on its customer base, including Lyft, Stripe, Equifax, Checkout.com and Intuit.

According to President of Cyber and Intelligence Solutions at Mastercard; Ajay Bhalla, one of the primary reasons for acquiring Ekata is ensuring that customers are safe on the platform. Specifically Ajay Bhalla said in a statement that “with the addition of Ekata, we will advance our identity capabilities and create a safer, seamless way for consumers to prove who they say they are in the new digital economy”

“The acceleration of online transactions has thrust global identity verification to the forefront as one of the biggest opportunities to build digital trust and combat global fraud”, Rob Eleveld, CEO at Ekata said in a statement. This goes to show that both Ekata and Mastercard together, they would be able to set up a barrier against fraudulent people from using online platforms to carry out business activities.