Prove
5 known investors
Phone-centric identity platform that helps companies mitigate fraud while accelerating revenue and reducing operational expenses.
Also known as Payfone · Prove Identity · Prove Identity, Inc.
Investors · 5
Company profile
researched Aug 2026Prove, formerly known as Payfone, operates a digital identity verification and authentication platform that uses a consumer's mobile phone as the anchor for establishing identity. Its cloud services and APIs are designed to verify and authenticate people across mobile, desktop and in-store channels, with the stated aim of reducing onboarding friction while mitigating fraud. The company describes itself as a platform for continuous identity authentication and markets a portfolio that includes Prove Pre-Fill (pre-populating application forms with verified identity data, with optional KYC checks), Prove Account Opening, Prove Unified Authentication, Prove Human Assurance, Prove Verified User, Know Your Payee, ProveX and an Agentic Suite for AI-agent interactions, all built on the Prove Identity Platform and the Prove Identity Network.
The company serves financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail, crypto, online gaming, marketplaces, merchants, fintech/lending, technology and telecommunications customers. It emphasizes developer-oriented integration through a developer portal, client- and server-side SDKs and documentation, citing an implementation time of about five minutes for core API functionality. Prove Identity, Inc. is headquartered in New York, NY, and states its solutions are available in 195 countries.
Business model
Prove sells identity verification and authentication software to businesses on a B2B2C basis: enterprise customers embed Prove's APIs and SDKs into their own onboarding, login and transaction flows so that end consumers are verified using signals derived from their mobile phones rather than personal data supplied by the user.
Enterprise sales of identity verification and authentication solutions delivered as cloud APIs and SDKs.
Traction
Prove reports being trusted by more than 2,000 companies globally, including 19 of the 20 top banks. At the time of the 2020 Early Warning transaction it cited over 1,000 enterprises and 500 financial institutions, including 7 of the top 10 U.S. banks; by October 2023 it cited 9 of the top 10 U.S. banks. Published customer results include Bilt Mastercard raising credit card onboarding pass rates to over 90% with a 48-hour implementation, Spark Wallet eliminating bot attacks, a U.S. healthcare system creating 500,000 new patient accounts with 95% patient opt-in to pre-filled onboarding, and a global credit card issuer reducing customer drop-off by 35% with 22% faster onboarding.
Latest developments
In October 2023 Prove announced a $40 million funding round led by MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures, with MassMutual Ventures partner Charles Svirk joining the board; the company said proceeds would fund commerce enablement and fraud-fighting use cases and continued global expansion. Over the preceding year it announced partnerships with Visa, FanDuel and Experian, launched Prove Auth for passwordless login and omnichannel authentication, opened an India Engineering & Technology Hub, and announced a Brazil market partnership with e-Safer. More recently the company has positioned its platform around persistent trust for people, businesses and AI agents, publishing an Agentic Suite, Prove Verified User and Know Your Payee, and reported with partner Blend a 16% reduction in application drop-off for banks and credit unions (August 2026).
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history
Market position
Prove states it is used by more than 2,000 companies globally, including 19 of the 20 top banks; earlier statements cited 9 of the top 10 U.S. banks, 2 of the top 3 global cryptocurrency exchanges, 3 of the top 5 U.S. retailers, 2 of the top 3 U.S. healthcare companies and 6 of the top 10 U.S. insurance companies. It has been named by Deloitte as one of the fastest-growing companies in North America for six consecutive years as of 2023. Coverage of its 2021 funding noted the authentication and verification market was projected to reach $12.8 billion by 2024 per MarketsandMarkets, in a field with many competing approaches.
The company positions its differentiation on passive, low-friction verification anchored to a device nearly every adult already carries, and on privacy — reporting from its 2021 raise noted that its focus on protecting users and their data privacy helped it stand out to investors. It also emphasizes converting one-time verification into persistent, reusable trust that travels across the customer journey.
Technology
Prove's approach uses mobile intelligence-derived signals tied to a consumer's phone to verify and authenticate identity passively, without requiring user intervention, and states it does not rely on personal data supplied by the user. Products include phone-based pre-fill of application data with optional KYC checks, orchestrated multi-factor and passwordless authentication intended to reduce reliance on SMS one-time passcodes, human-presence verification at the authenticator level to block bots and SMS pumping, and cryptographic possession signals for persistent identity. Capabilities are exposed as APIs with client- and server-side SDKs.
Go-to-market
Prove goes to market through direct enterprise sales (a "Contact Sales"/"Talk to an expert" motion), a self-serve developer portal with SDKs and API documentation, published customer case studies, and partnerships with companies including Visa, FanDuel, Experian, e-Safer and Blend.
Enterprises that onboard and authenticate consumers online, particularly banks and financial institutions, plus healthcare systems, insurers, crypto exchanges, retailers and merchants, online gaming, marketplaces, and fintech/lending companies.
Geography
Headquartered in New York, NY, with solutions stated to be available in 195 countries. The company opened an India Engineering & Technology Hub and announced a partnership with e-Safer in the Brazil market, and reported more than 40% new international customer growth year to date as of October 2023.
History
The company operated as Payfone and had partnered with Early Warning Services since 2013 to deliver authentication solutions to the U.S. financial services industry. On July 29, 2020 it announced a rebrand to Prove, alongside the acquisition of Early Warning Services' mobile authentication lines of business and a $100 million fundraise. As part of the rebrand it acquired the Prove.com domain name, brokered by Grit Brokerage for $175,000. In October 2023 the company, then operating as Prove Identity, Inc., announced a further $40 million round.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 12
launches, deals, and filingsFunding to launch new commerce enablement and fraud-fighting use cases and continue global expansion; MassMutual Ventures partner Charles Svirk joined Prove's Board of Directors.
$40M source ↗
Within the year preceding October 2023, Prove announced partnerships with Visa, FanDuel and Experian.
Prove announced the acquisition of Early Warning Services, LLC's mobile authentication business, its multi-factor authentication and orchestration solutions, and the Authentify line of business. Prove assumed direct support for customers sourced through the two companies' partnership since 2013, bringing to seven the number of top 10 U.S. banks served directly by Prove.
Alongside the rebrand from Payfone to Prove, the company announced a $100 million fundraise led by Apax Digital, reported exclusively by TechCrunch.
$100M source ↗
Geoff Miller, former SVP of Global Fraud and Identity Solutions at TransUnion and former Payfone board member, joined Prove to lead the newly acquired multi-factor authentication business.
Payfone announced it had rebranded as Prove, adopting the Prove.com domain and the ProveIdentity social handle.
Payfone acquired the Prove.com domain name in a sale brokered by Grit Brokerage for $175,000, according to broker Brian Harbin; WHOIS history indicates the domain transferred between April and July 2020.
$175K source ↗
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
In the news
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Payfone Acquires Prove.com and Rebrands | DomainInvesting.comdomaininvesting.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Prove do?
- Prove (formerly Payfone) is a phone-centric digital identity verification and authentication platform used by banks and other enterprises.
- Who are Prove's investors?
- Prove's investors include Blue Venture Funds, MassMutual Ventures, Opus Capital, Second Alpha Partners, Capital One Ventures.