Cognito
AcquiredYC S14YC Top CompanySan Francisco, US · Founded 2013 · 12 employees · 3 known investors
Cognito provides identity verification and anti-fraud solutions for consumer and business onboarding at scale. The platform uses developer-centric infrastructure and gradual verification approaches to optimize customer onboarding experiences.
Also known as BlockScore
CybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareFintechSaaSB2BIdentityUnited States of AmericaAmerica / CanadaFully Remote
Founders & leadership· Y Combinator alumni (S14)
Cognito was founded in 2013 by Alain Meier, John Backus, and Christopher Morton.
AM
Alain Meierin𝕏Co-Founder, CEO2013–2022Alain Meier co-founded Cognito, which was acquired by Plaid in 2022.
JB
John Backus𝕏Founder/CTOJohn Backus founded Cognito, which was acquired by Plaid in 2022, where he served as CTO.
CM
Christopher Mortonin𝕏Co-founder · President and COOFounder, President, and COO of Cognito, which offers identity verification and anti-fraud tools for consumer and business onboarding. His stated areas of expertise include technical marketing, competitive strategy, business development, technology management, angel investing and seed funding, brand management, and mobile telephony.
DG
Daniel GollahonVP of Engineering
Investors · 3
Funding
SEC filings, press & company announcements- Undisclosed amountSeries B extensionJan 2024Source ↗
Source: company announcements and press reports — follow each round's link for the claim.
The YC application· Summer 2014 batch
Images
Competitors · 10
by search overlapExperian35 shared keywordsExperian offers consumers tools to access their credit report and FICO Score, build credit, and manage money, including credit card matching, bill and subscription negotiation, car insurance comparison, and a digital checking account with debit card. It serves individual U.S. consumers through its app and financial products.
Veriff28 shared keywordsVeriff provides identity verification services for online platforms, using document recognition and multi-language support to verify that users are who they claim to be. The company serves businesses across various industries that need to authenticate users and reduce fraud online.
Socure26 shared keywordsSocure provides an AI-driven platform for digital identity verification, fraud prevention, and risk decisioning, serving enterprises and government agencies across financial services, gaming, healthcare, e-commerce, and other sectors. The platform uses machine learning to achieve high accuracy in identity verification and fraud detection across customer onboarding, authentication, and regulatory compliance workflows.
Plaid26 shared keywordsPlaid provides financial infrastructure and APIs that enable developers to build financial technology products and services. The platform serves fintech companies, developers, and financial institutions by offering consumer-facing applications and backend tools for financial data connectivity.
Gbg24 shared keywordsGBG provides an identity intelligence platform (GBG Go) that verifies customer identities using data sources, document checks and biometrics, and detects fraud and supports regulatory compliance. It serves businesses onboarding customers globally, with coverage across data verification in 50 countries and document/biometric verification in 195 countries.
Trulioo23 shared keywordsTrulioo operates a global platform of identity and business verification services, maintaining information security and technical compliance controls to protect customer data. Its offering is aimed at organizations that require regulatory identity verification, backed by ISO 27001 certification and SOC 2 Type 2 qualification.
Prove Payfone22 shared keywordsProve offers a business onboarding and verification solution that reduces manual input by validating business entities, EIN/TIN, and documents while connecting an individual applicant to a business through mobile device and phone number authentication. It targets companies onboarding business customers, helping them prevent fraud and improve pass rates through configurable API workflows.
Incode21 shared keywordsIncode provides AI-powered identity verification and fraud prevention services for financial services, fintech, healthcare, gaming, and enterprise customers globally.
Ondato21 shared keywordsOndato is a technology company providing KYC (Know Your Customer) and AML compliance tools for businesses, covering the full compliance lifecycle from client onboarding to ongoing client monitoring. It serves companies operating in increasingly digital markets that need identity verification and regulatory compliance solutions.
Ping Identity21 shared keywordsPing Identity provides identity management and access solutions designed to enable secure, scalable digital growth. The company serves enterprises seeking seamless identity infrastructure.
Companies competing with Cognito for the same Google search keywords, organic and paid, via search-intersection analysis.
In the news
Frequently asked questions
- What does Cognito do?
- Cognito provides identity verification and anti-fraud solutions for consumer and business onboarding at scale. The platform uses developer-centric infrastructure and gradual verification approaches to optimize customer onboarding experiences.
- Who founded Cognito?
- Cognito was founded by Alain Meier, John Backus, Christopher Morton in 2013.
- Who are Cognito's investors?
- Cognito's investors include Digital Currency Group, NAV.VC, Y Combinator.
- Where is Cognito headquartered?
- Cognito is headquartered in San Francisco, US.