Online identity verification start-up miiCard has secured £1.6 million in a second seed funding round joined by New Wave Ventures, IQ Capital and Par Equity.
MiiCard aims to tackle online fraud by providing consumers with a digital passport that can be used to prove that they are who they say they are on the Internet in real time. The virtual passport is owned and managed by the consumer - costing £1 a month - enabling them to track, monitor and take control of their online identity.
The latest funding - which comes after a £550,000 round in August - will be used to support a planned expansion into the US, where the UK-based firm hopes to take advantage of a focus on online security fostered by the new National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace initiative. Staff numbers will also be trebled in the next few months.
The US move means that miiCard now operates in seven countries, including the UK, Canada, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand, offering protection for online financial services, e-commerce and social networking.
James Varga, CEO, miiCard, says: "Now, more than ever, we are seeing a huge amount of activity in the marketplace around online identity and trust. With miiCard we can create a level of trust that currently does not exist online, and dramatically change the way we transact on the Internet."
Tim Bullock, co-founder, New Wave Ventures, adds: "As the Internet plays a growing role in the way we interact with each other, especially when executing financial transactions, it becomes increasingly important to be able to prove who we are, and quickly and reliably establish who we are dealing with. The miiCard team have developed a unique and global solution to this problem, which will facilitate commercial transactions and remove uncertainty from more personal interactions, and we look forward to working with them to develop the business."