NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Forter, the leading e-commerce fraud prevention company that protects merchants during each stage of the customer lifecycle in real-time, announced today that they’ve secured $50 million in Series D financing. The funding round was led by March Capital Partners with participation from Salesforce Ventures and previous investors Sequoia Capital, New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and Scale Venture Partners.
With 2,300 breaches exposing 2.6B personal records reported in the first half of 2018, bad actors have access to more consumer information to use for identity theft and e-commerce fraud than ever before. In fact, the most recent Fraud Attack Index revealed a 53% spike in account takeover in the last year. With the rate of online fraud attacks reaching an alarming new normal, sophisticated fraud prevention tools that make decisions in real-time without impacting the customer experience have become critical for online retailers.
E-commerce merchants find that by joining the Forter Merchant Network they are fighting fraud together. Forter not only removes the burden of fraud but also improves the user experience for their customers, reduces friction and false declines, and drives revenue creation.
The company leverages sophisticated machine learning technologies, enhanced by human domain expertise, Israeli military intelligence and continuous research, to create a robust and ever-expanding identity database, already covering more than 180M U.S. shoppers. Today, with Forter’s powerful data network effect, over 95% of transactions processed by the company are completed by consumers who interacted with the network before. This growing network continues to power a coalition of retailers against fraud. This includes Fortune 500 retailers, leading travel companies and fast-growing digital disruptors throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.
“Fraud is an ever shifting problem. To get ahead of the curve and support our retail customers in whichever new experiences they want to offer consumers, we plan to double our already massive investment in research and development, expand our global coverage and facilitate further collaboration in the e-commerce and payments ecosystem,” said Michael Reitblat, Forter Co-founder and CEO.
“We’ve been seeing a major trend of offline commerce shifting online and the Forter team has built a solution to detect and prevent fraud across the payments ecosystem with the advantage of next-generation technology that leverages machine learning,” said Jamie Montgomery, Managing Director, March Capital Partners. “We’re excited to be involved with a company on the forefront of their industry and to watch Forter evolve as the fraud landscape grows more complex.”
"We had a significant fraud problem and Forter was up for the challenge,” said James Washington, Director of Product Management - Digital at TGI Fridays. “They partnered with our team to understand our customers and business needs and delivered beyond our expectations. Our restaurant operators can now accept online orders and mobile check payments with confidence."
The funding round is Forter’s largest to date, bringing the company’s total financing to $100 million since its founding in 2013. This achievement is the latest in a series of corporate milestones for Forter and dually affirms its clear leadership in the fraud prevention space. Forter already processes more than $50B of transactions annually and is the only solution to provide an end-to-end identity management platform for risk-based decisions. In the past 12 months alone, Forter has tripled its customer base, broadened its product offering and was recognized on the Forbes Fintech 50 list and Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list. The company also recently announced its expansion into Europe with the opening of its first UK office in London and is continuing to grow its management team and client base in the region.
ABOUT FORTER
Forter is the leading e-commerce fraud prevention company that protects merchants during each stage of the customer lifecycle. The company’s identity-based fraud prevention solution detects instances of fraud and abuse beyond transactions in real-time, such as attempts at account takeover and return abuse.
A team of world-class analysts constantly update Forter’s machine learning solutions with cutting-edge insights and research, ensuring the proprietary algorithms adapt to the latest fraud trends in real-time. As a result, Forter is trusted by Fortune 500 companies, online travel businesses, and fast-growing digital disrupters to deliver exceptional accuracy, a smoother user experience and elevated sales at a much lower cost.
ABOUT MARCH CAPITAL PARTNERS
March Capital Partners is a Santa Monica-based venture capital firm with one of the largest global funds in Southern California. Founded by industry veterans with over 50 years of investing experience, March Capital is unique in the Southern California market with its active investments in both early and late-stage companies in mobile, enterprise, infrastructure, gaming and other growth industries. The majority of March Capital’s investments are with Southern California companies, with targeted positions in innovative global organizations. For more information, see http://www.marchcp.com/.
ABOUT SALESFORCE VENTURES
Salesforce is the fastest growing top five enterprise software company and the #1 CRM provider globally. Salesforce Ventures—the company’s corporate investment group—invests in the next generation of enterprise technology that extends the power of the Salesforce Customer Success Platform, helping companies connect with their customers in entirely new ways. Portfolio companies receive funding as well as access to the world’s largest cloud ecosystem and the guidance of Salesforce’s innovators and executives. With Salesforce Ventures, portfolio companies can also leverage Salesforce's expertise in corporate philanthropy by joining Pledge 1% to make giving back part of their business model. Salesforce Ventures has invested in more than 275 enterprise cloud startups in 17 different countries since 2009. For more information, please visit www.salesforce.com/ventures.
