Alloy Success Story: Identity Decisioning Platform for Financial Services

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Alloy Success Story 

The financial sector, over the decades, has been considered to have secure and protected systems as it continuously deals with private information and handles large sums of money.


However, due to technological evolution, financial institutions conducting online operations and offering financial services are now always at risk of fraud attempts and attacks. The statistics backed up by Fortunly’s assessment show that the annual cost of cyberattacks in the banking industry is approximately $18.3 million.


It’s not about when the bank and fintech organizations will be attacked; it’s about whether or not it is prepared. Alloy is an API company that allows financial institutions to verify users’ identities while meeting their fraud-fighting needs.



Let’s read further to know more about Alloy. This article will tell you everything about the company, from its mission and funding to products, competitors, and startup story.
Alloy – Company Highlights

Alloy - Company Highlights

  • Headquarters- New York City, New York, United States
  • Company Name- Alloy
  • Sector-Fintech
  • Founders-Tommy Nicholas, Laura Spiekerman, Charles Hearn
  • Founded In-2015
  • Revenue-$1.4B (2022)
  • Website-Alloy.com

Alloy - About

  • Founded in 2015, Alloy is a global identity verification API platform that helps fintech companies and banks automate their onboarding, transaction monitoring, and credit underwriting decisions.
  • Moreover, the company helps financial institutions worldwide to reduce friction between them and their customers by assessing them beyond their address and social security number.
  • Alloy offers services to more than 200 clients worldwide, including Marqeta, Ally Bank, HMBradley, Evolve Bank & Trust, and Gemini, while processing approximately 1,000,000 decisions. The platform helps banks automate 98% of onboarding decisions while reducing 50% of fraud and boosting overall customer conversion.

Alloy - Founders and Team

  • Tommy Nicholas, Laura Spiekerman, and Charles Hearn founded Alloy in 2015.

Tommy Nicholas

  • Tommy Nicholas graduated from The University of Virginia by completing Bachelor's in History and African American Studies. After working as a Research Assistant, Enumerator, and Booking Manager, his career thrived in 2011 when he founded The City Swig.
  • After that, he held the role of Software Developer at SHOCKOE.COM LLC and owned Web/Mobile Freelancing. It was in 2015 he co-founded Alloy and is currently working as the company's CEO

Laura Spiekerman

  • Laura Spiekerman completed her B.A. in Political Science and Human Rights from Barnard College. She has interned at Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and Kasirer Consulting.
  • In 2008, she held the role of Paralegal at Clayman & Rosenberg. Moreover, before co-founding Alloy, she was Investment Analyst at Imprint Capital Advisors. Presently, she is the President of Alloy.

Charles Hearn

  • Charles Hearn is B.A. Computer Science graduate and completed his graduation from the University of Virginia. He has diverse experience working as an Independent Researcher at UVA Research, Mobile Lead and General Developer at The City Swig, and Program Manager at Microsoft.
  • After working as a Lead Product Engineer at Knox Payments, he co-funded Alloy and is currently its CTO.

Alloy - Startup Story

  • Allow was initially founded by Tommy Nicholas, Laura Spiekerman, and Charles Hearn mainly to fix a 'broken' onboarding process that historically involved manual review when people used to apply for bank accounts online. Simply put, the company's main mission was to help fintech institutions and banks make better identity and risk decisions with the help of a single API service and SaaS platform.
  • Over the last few years, it has evolved into a platform that not only helps automate onboarding identity decision but also automate transaction monitoring. Moreover, by the start of 2022, Alloy came up with one more solution, i.e., credit underwriting. Between 2020-21, the company witnessed a three-times increase in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and a two-times increase in customer base.

Alloy - Mission and Vision

  • The company's mission is to make banking as inclusive and secure as people deserve it to be. Alloy strives to create a future in which banking is borderless and accessible.


Alloy - Business Model

  • Alloy connects its users to data procured from around 120 providers. Then the company utilizes that data to aid financial institutions in understanding customers and their behaviors while avoiding fraud during initial customer onboarding and when conducting ongoing financial transactions.
  • And the same is done by allowing them to create customized instant decisioning systems tailored according to users' needs associated with regulatory compliance and risk perspective.

Alloy - Products and Services

  • Allow offers two main solutions, i.e., Onboarding and Ongoing Monitoring, to solve fraud, compliance, credit underwriting, crypto, and global expansion.

Alloy - Funding and Investors

  • Alloy has undertaken 8 funding rounds in which it has raised $207.8 million. The latest funding round - Series C Round, was conducted on June September 1, 2022, and raised $52 million. 21 investors fund the company, and the main ones are Bessemer Venture Partners, Lightspeed, CANAPI, Eniac Ventures, Felicis Ventures, AVID Ventures, and PRIMARY Venture Partners.

Alloy - Patents and Trademarks

  • Alloy is registered with 1 trademark, categorized into the 'Scientific and Technological Services' class.

Alloy - Growth

  • Alloy's estimated annual revenue in 2022 is $53.2 million ($173,167 per employee). Currently, its valuation stands at $1.4 billion. Moreover, the employee count increased by 54% last year, and monthly website visits grew by 5.69%, with 29,511 visits.

Alloy - Partners

Alloy has partnered with the best technology and data providers across the world. Some of these are:

  •     Acuant
  •     Argyle
  •     Basis Theory
  •     Berbix
  •     ChexSystems
  •     Codat
  •     Cognito
  •     ComplyAdvantage
  •     Ekata
  •     Enigma
  •     Equifax


Alloy - Awards and Achievements

Alloy is recognized in the 100 Best Places to Work, 50 Best Paying Companies, and 100 Best Midsize Companies to Work For in NYC by Built In.

Alloy - Competitors

Some of its main competitors are:

  •     Unit21
  •     Experian Cross Core
  •     Dotfile
  •     Spec
  •     FrankieOne
  •     Bits Technology
  •     Lendflow
  •     AI0
  •     Persona


FAQs

Who founded Alloy and when?

Tommy Nicholas, Laura Spiekerman, and Charles Hearn founded Alloy in 2015.

What does Alloy do?

Alloy is a global identity verification API platform that helps fintech companies and banks automate their onboarding, transaction monitoring, and credit underwriting decisions. It helps financial institutions worldwide to reduce friction between them and their customers by assessing them beyond their address and social security number.

Who are the main competitors of Alloy?

Some of Alloy's main competitors are:

  •     Unit21
  •     Experian Cross Core
  •     Dotfile
  •     Spec
  •     FrankieOne
  •     Bits Technology
  •     Lendflow
  •     AI0
  •     Persona