Boku offloads ID verification division to focus on mobile payments

London-based fintech Boku is to sell off its ID verification and authentication business Boku Identity to cloud communications platform Twilio.

Boku CEO Jon Prideaux

The sale will allow Boku to focus squarely on its payments business, in particular its newly launched mobile payments network M1ST (Mobile First), designed to make mobile payment acceptance easier for merchants through a single API integration.

Boku CEO Jon Prideaux says: “This is an important milestone for our business, allowing us to focus on developing our mobile payments solutions.”

US-based Twilio provides companies with ways to connect with their customers by digitising communication channels via its APIs.

The firm intends to build on Boku Mobile Identity’s comprehensive mobile identity network to improve security offerings for Twilio customers.

It says the acquisition will allow it to provide “a seamless consumer identity solution that doesn’t sacrifice user experience for security”.

Boku Identity was acquired by Boku in 2019 as Danal. It provides mobile verification and authentication solutions and can verify customer data in real time from authoritative, GDPR-compliant data sources supported by real-time connections to Mobile Network Operators (MNOs).