• Product Reviews
• 14.02.2022 08:29 am
• SEON

Please tell us about SEON. What does the company do?

SEON is using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to redefine what it means to fight online fraud. Since starting in 2017, we have developed our solution into a revolutionary AI fraud prevention platform. 

With specialties in the neo-banking, crypto, eCommerce and Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) sectors, SEON is well-equipped to deal with the demands of modern online fraud prevention. We boast several of the most ambitious fintech companies in the world as clients, including Revolut, Nubank and Patreon.

As of 2022, SEON now provides its services to over 5,000 merchants, has reviewed over 1 billion transactions and has saved its clients more than €50 million. As a globally focussed business, we operate offices in Austin (TX), Budapest, London and Jakarta.

What recent developments would you highlight?

As a hypergrowth startup, SEON is constantly striking up new and exciting partnerships with some of the world’s fastest growing companies. A great example is the recent launch of our fraud prevention solution on Shopify. Our solution is helping to reduce chargebacks, lost payments, and goods across Shopify’s 1.75 million merchants globally. 

Powered by AI and machine learning, the app amplifies protection for ecommerce merchants by using automated, real-time data checks and assigning risk scores across each purchase. This is all made possible through SEON’s industry-leading intelligent scoring engine, which represents an amazing new tool in the battle against online fraud. 

Looking back over the last two years, what have been the key drivers of your growth?

SEON is now the world’s fastest growing fraud prevention company, having experienced incredible rates of growth during the past two years. Underpinning this expansion are several key drivers, which include increased staffing levels, the leveraging of Series A investment and a commitment to reinvesting in its own technology. 

For example, we have more than quadrupled in size since the start of 2021. In the past year alone, SEON took on around 150 employees, with further plans to double that number again in 2022. To accommodate these new teams, we recently opened new offices in Austin and Jakarta. 

As a product tech company, SEON is also constantly reinvesting in its technologies. Most recently we launched our CatBoost Blackbox machine learning update, as well as an improved dashboard design. The upgrades are helping our solution to run more effectively than ever before. 

Finally, SEON has worked to leverage the Series A investment it received from venture capital partner, Creandum into new avenues for growth. Alongside the $12 million investment it received, we have worked to build new partnerships within Creandum’s broader investment network, which has helped it to continue growing. 

Can you please give us some specific examples of how your solutions have really had a positive impact on your clients?

SEON’s success is based on being at the forefront of technology, using industry-leading supervised Machine Learning (ML) systems and open APIs. We value transparency and explainability within our systems, which is why for many years we opted for whitebox machine learning systems over blackbox alternatives. These systems allow risk managers to gain more control over the engine in order to tweak, test, and measure the results of each risk rule.

For over five years, major clients have relied on our platform to deliver results. A great example of this is our partnership with Patreon. With SEON’s reverse email and social media lookup tools, Patreon was able to reduce friction in acquiring extra data. In turn, Patreon reduced its manual payment verification process from 24 hours to 30 minutes, with better data accuracy helping to lower customer insult rates from 6% to 2%.

What are the main trends that will determine how your company develops over the coming two years or so?

Fraud is on the rise across all aspects of society but growing particularly quickly online. SEON’s core aim is to democratise the battle against online fraud and to ensure that businesses of all sizes have access to robust, affordable, and user-friendly solutions, which help to mitigate this risk.

Since the pandemic, we have seen a great amount of fraud migrate online. This has not gone unnoticed by businesses, who are beginning to wake up to the need to treat cybersecurity as seriously as they do physical security. As a result, companies like SEON should expect to see further growth in the near future. 

What does the competitive landscape look like from your point of view?

Against the backdrop of the pandemic, many traditional security companies have tried to refocus their outlooks to become more online-centric. However, many of these companies lack the specialized knowledge needed to offer truly effective solutions online. Conversely, at SEON, we’ve already been providing these services for over half a decade.

Across the market, there is now a noticeable trend of companies who are not investing enough time, or resources into testing, or developing their product and growing frustrations about businesses who remain vague on their pricing structure. At SEON, we pride ourselves on being the antithesis to this phenomena. 

Ultimately, the need for effective online security has never been greater, but arguably, the number of providers able to offer it has never been smaller. Of course, there are worthy competitors within our field, but none can offer a solution as effective and accessible as SEON’s, which is why we’re leading the pack. 

How would you summarise all this in one or two sentences?

SEON is redefining what it means to fight online fraud and helping to democratize the fight against online fraud for all sizes of online business; small, medium and large.