Entersekt, a global payment security company headquartered in Cape Town, today announced a strategic investment from Accel-KKR, a leading technology-focused private equity firm. The investment will enable Entersekt to accelerate its roadmap and fuel expansion into new markets.
Rand Merchant Investment Holdings (JSE: RMI) through AlphaCode, RMI’s incubator for fintech entrepreneurs has led two previous fundraising rounds and remains a significant investor.
“We are very excited to have Accel-KKR on board. The industry is experiencing a wave of innovation in areas like omnichannel and passwordless authentication, 3-D Secure and open banking, all of which are strategic focus areas for Entersekt. The investment from Accel-KKR will help us scale our business to reach more organizations across more regions with our cloud-first solutions,” says Schalk Nolte, Entersekt CEO.
Entersekt currently secures over 1 billion transactions every month, protecting millions of financial services customers across the globe. The company is an innovator in the global authentication market, known for delivering market and industry firsts. Two recent examples include a Europe-first payment authentication solution based on the FIDO standard, and a world-first implementation of an AI-powered 3-D Secure solution currently making rapid progress at an award-winning bank.
Dominique Collett, RMI Senior Investment Executive and head of AlphaCode comments, “In 2017, we identified Entersekt as a high growth business, ready to scale led by a strong entrepreneurial management team. We continue to strongly believe in this business and its growth potential and we are excited to work with Accel-KKR to benefit all parties.”
“Entersekt is known for its deep vertical expertise and successful track record in the financial services industry. The company scores high marks from customers, especially for its innovative technology that completely reimagines user experiences,” says Joe Porten, Principal at Accel-KKR. “As a partner, Accel-KKR is committed to helping the Entersekt team accelerate growth and continually deliver innovation in their category.”
“Providing frictionless user experiences and allowing organizations to customize their user journeys around their specific needs is a very important part of our value proposition,” Nolte adds. “It brings to life our vision of bridging the gap between identity, authentication and payments.”
Founded in 2000 as one of the first technology-focused private equity firms, Accel-KKR has invested in over 300 mid-market software and technology-enabled services businesses around the world. The firm partners with strong management teams in B2B software companies with mission-critical technologies. In August 2021, Accel-KKR was named one of the Top 25 Private Equity Firms for Growth Companies by GrowthCap Advisory.