Dotfile is a comprehensive identity verification API for compliance • businessroundups.org

Meet dot filea new startup backed by eFounders which just raised a $2.7 million (€2.5 million) round of funding to help companies authenticate users and other businesses with a single application programming interface (API).

Serena is leading the funding round through her V13 Invest fund (backed by FDJ). Kima Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Super Capital, Upscalers, Polymatter Ventures and several business angels are also participating in the round.

If you’ve talked to founders of fintech startups, they’ve probably told you that there are dozens of small and large companies working on identity verification processes. The reason why there are so many players in this industry is that identity verification is an important process to comply with anti-money laundering (AML) and know your customer (KYC) regulations.

As a consumer, you may have come across these verification systems when sending money through a peer-to-peer payment app, selling an expensive item on a marketplace, or renting a car. These services ask you to scan your ID, take a selfie video, connect to your bank account, send documents, etc.

Instead of building yet another Identity, Risk, and Fraud Management API with limited geographic and industry coverage, Dotfile aims to bring together dozens of KYC and KYB services, allowing businesses to mix and match APIs and data sources depending on their needs and the profiles of their customers.

This way, fintech startups just starting out don’t have to benchmark multiple products, negotiate contracts with each provider, and manually build integrations with each API. Dotfile also tries to unify these services and provides an embeddable authentication interface. Alternatively, developers can use Dotfile’s API directly.

Likewise, Dotfile helps you centralize your authentication information in a single backend. If a user emails you because they received an error verifying their identity, the person responsible for compliance can easily see where the process failed.

Dotfile also provides a workflow builder, which allows you to create if-then-else rules for a variety of scenarios. For example, if a customer tries to verify their company, there may be different processes if it is a French company, a European company or a non-European company.

The startup is still relatively new as it was founded in 2021. But it could be especially interesting for new fintech startups as Dotfile helps you ship a fintech product faster. In a sense, it acts as a layer of abstraction, allowing entrepreneurs to focus on different things.