Prove

Overview

Prove is a New York City identity verification and authentication company that proves who a user is from the phone in their pocket: data from the phone’s SIM card acts as a privacy-centric proxy for a digital identity, combined with on-device capabilities such as facial recognition, to authenticate users for onboarding, servicing, and payments (TechCrunch). Founded around 2008 as Payfone, the company rebranded as Prove in July 2020 alongside a $100 million investment and the acquisition of Early Warning Services’ mobile authentication business, and by October 2023 it was valued past $1 billion (TechCrunch; IBS Intelligence).

This profile covers Prove Identity, Inc. — the former Payfone — and not any other company using the “Prove” name. Its chief executive is Rodger Desai, who led the company through both the rebrand and the 2023 funding round (IBS Intelligence).

From Payfone to Prove: carrier billing, then identity

Prove was founded in the first wave of smartphone adoption, around 2008, with an aim to reduce friction — and the shopping-cart abandonment that came with it — in e-commerce transactions, leaning on the growing ubiquity of phones and the data they unlocked about their users (TechCrunch). Its initial focus was carrier billing: teaming up with mobile operators to offer an alternative to credit cards that avoided entering card details. It later pivoted to its current business, using algorithms that tap phone data to design flows for verifying users (TechCrunch).

The decisive step came through the banking industry. Prove and Early Warning Services — a consortium owned by seven of the largest US banks — had partnered since 2013 to deliver authentication to US financial services (IBS Intelligence). In July 2020, alongside the rebrand, Prove acquired Early Warning’s mobile authentication lines of business, including its multi-factor authentication and orchestration solutions and the Authentify line, and assumed direct support for the customers sourced through the partnership — taking the number of top-10 US banks it served directly to seven (IBS Intelligence). Geoff Miller, formerly of TransUnion and a former Payfone board member, joined to run the acquired multi-factor authentication business (IBS Intelligence). At the time, the company said it served over 1,000 enterprises and 500 financial institutions, with solutions available in 195 countries (IBS Intelligence). TechCrunch later reported that Payfone had processed 20 billion authentications in 2019, growing 70% year on year (TechCrunch).

Phone-based authentication, and the Alloy connection

Prove’s technology links SIM data to smartphone functionality such as facial recognition to authenticate a user, which then triggers pre-filled application information, customer verification flows, and password-free authentication (TechCrunch). The company reports that its tools deliver 79% faster onboarding, a 35% reduction in abandonment, and a 75% reduction in fraud relative to attack rate — figures reported by SecurityWeek as company claims, not independently audited results (SecurityWeek). By October 2023 it counted around 1,000 business customers, including nine of the top 10 US banks, two of the top three global cryptocurrency exchanges, three of the top five US retailers, and six of the top 10 US insurers, with names including Experian, Visa, Starbucks, and DocuSign (TechCrunch).

That October, Prove raised $40 million co-led by MassMutual and Capital One at a ten-figure valuation — past the $1 billion mark, though the company did not disclose an exact figure — taking total funding past $215 million (TechCrunch; SecurityWeek). The money was earmarked for digital-payments and commerce tools and for fraud detection, with the mobile handset remaining central to the proposition (TechCrunch). Prove also sits inside other fintechs’ stacks: in March 2022, Alloy collaborated with Prove to strengthen its clients’ ability to verify and authenticate customer identities (Retail Banker International).

What this profile does not claim

• The founders’ names were not verified in a fully-read independent source and are deliberately not stated.
• The exact October 2023 valuation was not disclosed; only the past-$1-billion characterization, attributed to sources close to the company, is claimed.
• The lead investor for the 2020 $100 million round was not verified in a fully-read independent source and is not named.
• Performance figures (onboarding speed, abandonment, fraud reduction, authentication volumes) are company claims as reported by independent outlets, not independently audited results, and the 2019–2020 figures are not current figures.
• Developments after October 2023 were not covered in this research pass.