Persona.io

Persona Identities Inc., operating as Persona, provides a comprehensive identity infrastructure platform for businesses, founded in 2018 by CEO Rick Song and CTO Charles Yeh. The company emerged from the founders' direct experiences with the complexities of digital identity verification at their previous roles; Song was an engineer at Square focusing on identity fraud and risk products, while Yeh led identity teams at Dropbox. Their shared background and friendship, which began during a summer internship in 2012, culminated in the creation of a platform designed to offer a flexible, customizable alternative to the one-size-fits-all solutions prevalent in the market.

The firm targets a diverse client base, including compliance, fraud, and trust & safety teams across various sectors such as fintech, healthcare, education, and marketplaces. Its clientele features prominent names like Square, OpenAI, LinkedIn, Coursera, and Brex. Persona's business model is primarily usage-based, charging clients for successful verifications rather than per attempt, aligning its success with that of its customers. This approach is part of a tiered pricing structure that includes plans for startups, growing businesses, and large enterprises, with a special program for startups offering a number of free monthly services.

Persona's core offering is a fully automated identity verification platform that provides the building blocks for businesses to design and manage custom Know Your Customer (KYC), Know Your Business (KYB), and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) programs. The platform utilizes machine learning and computer vision to verify government-issued documents from over 200 countries and territories, and supports 20 languages. Key features include biometric authentication with liveness checks, cross-referencing user data against authoritative databases, and a dynamic, no-code workflow builder that allows businesses to tailor the verification process in real-time based on risk signals. This adaptability is crucial for navigating evolving regulations like GDPR and addressing emerging threats such as AI-generated deepfakes. The company has achieved significant financial milestones, including a Series C funding round of $150 million in 2021 at a $1.5 billion valuation, and a Series D round of $200 million in April 2025, which elevated its valuation to $2 billion.

Keywords: identity verification, KYC, KYB, AML, fraud prevention, digital identity, biometric authentication, compliance solutions, risk management, identity infrastructure, user onboarding, document verification, trust and safety, fintech security, global verification, automated decisioning, no-code platform, identity management, regulatory compliance, data security