Persona, a leading verified identity platform, announced a $200 million Series D funding round, bringing the company’s valuation to $2 billion. The funding round was co-led by Founders Fund and Ribbit Capital, with participation from existing investors including BOND, Coatue, First Round Capital, Index Ventures, and Chemistry.
Value proposition: Automated traffic surpassed human traffic on the Internet for the first time last year. With advancements in AI, it is projected to account for most of the Internet traffic by 2030. AI systems also surpassed human performance on all major CAPTCHA systems, further blurring the line between humans and machines online. However, not all AI-driven traffic is malicious, as it is simply unidentified.
Organizations are facing a deeply fragmented regulatory environment with ever-evolving compliance demands across jurisdictions, verticals, and identity use cases. And as hackers become more sophisticated, they are utilizing AI to create synthetic identities, generate deepfakes, and launch automated attacks at scale. Consumers are demanding greater privacy and control, pressuring companies to deliver seamless experiences without compromising on data protection.
The rise of AI agents, increasingly sophisticated fraud, regulatory fragmentation, and growing privacy expectations created a far more complex and constantly evolving identity landscape. And as new identity verification technologies and frameworks emerge to meet these challenges, businesses need more than static solutions. They also require a dynamic and configurable identity platform that can adapt to diverse use cases, keep pace with shifting risks, and scale trust wherever and whenever needed.
Persona’s platform was created to address this complexity. And unlike rigid one-size-fits-all solutions, it provides a configurable, privacy-first foundation that adapts to businesses’ needs as regulations shift, fraud evolves, and use cases expand.
Major milestones: Along with doubling its customer base, Persona has achieved several key milestones over the past year, including:
1.) Enhanced age assurance solutions, such as certifications from Germany’s KJM and the UK’s Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS), have earned global recognition.
2.) Expanded international KYB capabilities, helping businesses verify and onboard entities globally while detecting sophisticated impersonation and synthetic fraud.
3.) Detected 75+ million AI-driven face spoof attempts via advanced liveness detection technology.
4.) Expanded footprint into workforce identity security, including a partnership with Okta’s Workforce Identity Cloud.
5.) Building the verified identity layer for any business
KEY QUOTES:
“We’re facing an identity authenticity crisis, where the line between real and synthetic has become increasingly blurred. Identity in an AI-driven world isn’t about ticking a box, and the question is no longer ‘is this a bot or not?’ but rather ‘who is the bot acting on behalf of, and what is their intent?’ Identity is the linchpin: it reveals who is behind each action, provides context around their intent, and ultimately builds trust in a future where AI mediates more of our interactions.”
Rick Song, CEO and co-founder of Persona
“Identity is a foundational mega-trend driving digital transformation, and we’ve believed from day one that Persona would power this shift through its software-native solution. With the rise of AI agents, it’s critical to verify the identity — whether person or bot — behind every online interaction. Rick and the Persona team have both the vision and the ambition to build the platform that will help to lead this transformation.”
Thomas Laffont, co-founder of Coatue
“Identity has become the foundation of every digital interaction, and in the age of AI, we believe solving identity will be more pivotal than ever. We’ve long admired Persona’s ambition to build a verified identity platform and have been impressed by the diversity of industries, use cases, and geographies of their customers. Their rapid growth and adoption by leaders like OpenAI, LinkedIn, Etsy, Twilio, and Block are clear validation that they’re solving real problems at scale.”
Nick Shalek, Partner at Ribbit Capital
