The Know Your Customer (KYC) activities of the Dutch fintech start-up Safened are experiencing such growth that they will be rebranded as Fourthline. In the past year and a half, the company has performed digital identity checks on millions of customers for banks and fintechs like N26, Wirecard and Allianz. Experienced executives are now joining the company to lead Fourthline through the next phase of growth.

Exceptional growth in “the next $20 billion digital market”

The Dutch start-up has seen exceptional growth in a short period of time. The international expansion of mobile bank N26, at € 3.5 billion one of Europe's highest valued fintechs, was made possible through the digital vetting of its new clients by Fourthline. At the launch of its KYC service for the financial sector at the end of 2017, the company had fewer than 20 employees. This has grown to a team of more than 150, spread across offices in Amsterdam, Barcelona, London and New York.

Fourthline CEO Krik Gunning: "McKinsey&Company expects the digital identity verification to be 'the next $20 billion digital market', because increasingly large and vulnerable transactions are made online. There is growing pressure on banks to know exactly who their customers are and to combat fraud and money laundering. Fourthline can fulfil the role of gatekeeper for every financial institution. We make KYC cheaper for banks, easier for their clients and safer for society."

Reinforcement from McKinsey, Stripe and BlackRock

The management of Fourthline, led by Krik Gunning, will be strengthened with Remco Vlemmix (former partner at McKinsey) as Chief Operating Officer and Duco Van Lanschot (European leadership of Stripe) as Chief Commercial Officer.

The Supervisory Board of Safened Fourthline B.V. has been supplemented by Leen Meijaard (former member of the Executive Board of Blackrock EMEA, Chairman of the Supervisory Boards of football club Ajax and Achmea Investment Management) and Eric Hollanders (former CEO of Bank Mendes Gans). Fourthline CEO Krik Gunning: "By strengthening the senior management and board, we can speed up Fourthline's international growth."

Know Your Customer and Digital Identity

Fourthline helps banks and fintechs with their gatekeeper’s function, by verifying the identity of thousands of new customers every day. In order to combat fraud and reduce the risks for financial parties, Fourthline performs hundreds of checks on, amongst others, the ID document, biometric data, device data, whereabouts and global sanction lists. Fourthline has reduced the turnaround time of these digital checks to less than two minutes. The Fourthline method can also be applied to a bank's existing customers.

Fourthline detects more than a third of the fraud by using technology that no other KYC provider has. Fourthline, as part of Safened Fourthline BV, is regulated as an Authorised Payment Institution by the Dutch Central Bank and the Financial Conduct Authority.