BBVA investment fund Propel has lead a $15 million financing round in Colombian authentication startup Truora.
Truora's TruConnect platform enables companies to verify the identity of consumers through an integration with WhatsApp.
“Truora has established itself as a go-to solution for identity verification and a key enabler for user acquisition,” explains David Mort, general partner at Propel, “We have seen great promise in how their WhatsApp authentication capabilities can solve pain points in financial services and other industries, and are excited to support Truora on this journey.”
Since its first round of seed funding in 2019, when it raised $3.5 million, Truora has expanded to operate in more than nine countries, with offices in Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Peru and San Francisco, offering services to more than 350 corporate customers.
Daniel Bilbao, CEO and co-founder of Turora comments: “Thanks to LatAm’s WhatsApp penetration being 80-90 percent of the population (550 million people), by making possible the integration of Truora’s authentication products into WhatsApp the company is opening a potential addressable market in LatAm of $3.5 billion."
He says the new investment will be used to enter new markets in the US and Europe and to grow its team, including the hiring of over 50 female professionals from Mexico, part of a strategy to increase female penetration in the fintech.
Currently, 60 percent of Truora's management team consists of women.
“We pride ourselves in helping increase female leadership participation in the tech world,” says Maite Muñiz, CPO and co-founder of the company. “Today, 45 percent of Truora’s team are women, and we want to keep increasing this percentage.”