" class="no-js "lang="en-US"> What Makes A Good Acquisition? HooYu and Mitek - Fintech Finance
Thursday, March 28, 2024

What Makes A Good Acquisition? HooYu and Mitek

Acquisitions are by no means as easy as you might think. According to most studies, around 70% – 90% of mergers and acquisitions actually fail. It begs the question, what makes a good acquisition? Mitek, a global leader in digital identity, recently acquired HooYu, UK’s leading KYC technology pioneers, for a total of £96M to combat fraud. In speaking with the CEO’s of both companies, it’s clear that this acquisition is a prosperous one, as the two look to accelerate their vision, embrace culture, and thrive while doing so.

The Main Drivers Behind The Acquisition: 

Max Carnecchia, CEO of Mitek, noted that digital identity is the underpinning of the future, whether that be commerce, banking, education or other facets of life.  “The total available market is growing by leaps and bounds but digital identity underpins everything that is happening in non direct communication and interaction with your customers. As the market has evolved, customer requirements have evolved too where the need to have a more comprehensive stack of capabilities that incorporates not just the identity verification techniques that Mitek has had historically, but the ability to now organise and orchestrate those in a very easy and straightforward user experience.” And that’s where HooYu comes in.

 

Commenting on the drivers behind the acquisition from a HooYu perspective, Keith Marsden, CEO of HooYu, voiced how the last few years have been incredible for HooYu’s position in the financial services market in the UK, however one has to consider how a company will continue pushing boundaries, go international and, crucially, investing in the product. “When we got talking to Max and his team, it was so obvious there was a really good fit in terms of geographies, but also in technology. They have some fantastic tech that will plug straight into the HooYu platform and make it even stronger than it is today. It’s a match made in heaven.”

Ensuring Digital Trust:

As technology develops with time, it’s easy to think society’s trust in it grows at the same rate. However, the ‘new’ is always somewhat feared, so how does this acquisition position the companies to best ensure digital trust? 

Max Carnecchia explained that “when I think about trust, certainly I think about identity but it’s that identity married with a solid reputation. If the heart of trust is identity, then you require HooYu and Mitek to ensure you know who you’re actually doing business with in a world where we’re not interacting face to face anymore.”

“You need a platform where you can build in lots of different techniques and data but have to allow the customer to very easily select them. In doing so, that’s the best way to ensure digital trust in the customer.” Obviously, there’s a clear and expert understanding of KYC demands and pressures in our new era of financial services which both seem best prepared for.

What’s Next?: 

“The future of identity is a portable digital identity and that future is not too distant.”

Marsden expanded on this concept of a digital wallet further, where the user on their mobile device has a digital identity they carry around with them the whole time. “They either offer that up to somebody who needs to verify their identity or they can be asked to provide it. You can imagine a large banking group that offers mortgages over here and loans over there only wants to verify the customer once, as does the customer. A digital wallet facilitates that.”

Through this acquisition, we will no doubt see organisations gain a more complete and holistic picture of the consumer by marrying biometrics, ID document validation, geolocation and identity confidence scoring with real-time data signals. The future is exciting!

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