Uqudo: Installing Trust in Digital Transactions

Mohamed Fagiri
Founder & CEO

uqudo’s mission is to develop cross-border and cross-industry digital ecosystems where the user is in control of their data. Building an inclusive, trustworthy, and sustainable internet of everything for all people and the planet, uqudo is aligned with the United Nation’s Sustainability Development goals to provide legal identity for all.

Uqudo was born with a mission to rid the digital world of fraudulent identities. We aim to instill trust in digital transactions and build an “identity layer” that makes customer onboarding safe, efficient and cost-effective in a digital world. Founded by a team of identity experts, Uqudo has a long heritage of delivering large-scale, highquality projects with success stories in digital federal national identity programs, national driving license systems, and national electronic passport programs. Our first product was an identity wallet which aimed to make digital onboarding a smoother process. Realising the need for a more localised identity platform, we reinvented ourselves to build a future-proof AI-based identity layer that is dynamic and secure. With the world accelerating towards a large-scale digital transformation, we have seen startups, scale-ups and even established organisations struggle with expensive customer onboarding. Our best-in-class identity stack helps prevent identity theft while reducing the overall cost of customer acquisition and being digital reduces paper-based costs. Our full-fledged identity platform has a core focus on KYC (Know Your Customer), AML & Screening, KYB (Know Your Business) and Authentication, letting our customers onboard users in a compliant manner.

Uqudo’s tech stack not only integrates seamlessly with next-generation fintech and blockchain technologies but also accelerates digital transformation in other regulated industries, streamlining compliant customer onboarding.

What are uqudo’s products?

uqudo adopts advanced digital identity technology including biometrics, certified 3D liveness detection, government-issued IDs reading, cognitive document analysis and AI document scanning. Our product has four core pillars; KYC (Know Your Customer), Screening: AML (Anti Money Laundering) & Sanctions, KYB (Know Your Business), Biometrics and Strong Authentication, and is fully supported across the Middle East & Africa. The solution is suited to companies in the Fintech, Banking, Blockchain, Insurance, Travel and Tourism industries as well as Public Sector organisations.

How is uqudo placed in the market?

uqudo launched with our first client in January 2021, and it has been a momentous journey since then with numerous product improvements including an increase in supported languages and detailed analytics. In 2022, we made even more significant advances in our product offering and now have 98% commonly used identity document scanning coverage in EMEA. What differentiates uqudo from other identity players in the region is our capability to verify identities not only in the countries our customers operate in but also in those they are planning to expand to in the near future, making us the de-facto option for digital identity in the region. We support over 10,000 documents in 248 countries and territories. Our identity verification solutions are currently live in 11 countries in the MENA region and are scheduled to expand to a total of 20 countries by the end of Q4 2022. We also have an MEA-focussed Enhanced Due Diligence in the pipeline for Credit Check, Bank Account and Address Verification. We believe that this expansion plan coupled with our existing capabilities within the GCC will result in us having the strongest identity proposition in MEA within a matter of months.

Where has uqudo performed well?

 Along with adapting well to the changing dynamics in different countries, our biggest achievements lie in our immensely powerful identity tech stack, which beats every other player in the region. Our incredible tech team, with years of experience in the identity industry, has been able to understand the challenges in the identity sector and build core products at the intersection of identity and technology. Our state-of-the-art tech stack has also been proudly recognised by some of the world’s most distinguished bodies including Visa, ForgeRock, Startup Grind, Fintech Abu Dhabi and Hope Hackathon.

Another major achievement that we are proud of is partnering with large-scale financial institutions across the Middle East and Africa, helping them shift towards a more digital onboarding process, despite their rigid belief in inperson verification systems.

 Why does uqudo have the potential to make it big?

The major reason why companies in the MEA region choose uqudo as their identity partner is our USPs, which include:

  1. Full-stack identity layer
    • Our advanced KYC allows fast, frictionless and compliant digital onboarding for our customers.
    • Our state-of-the-art screening platform has access to a global risk database of Sanctions, AML and PEP lists.
    • Our comprehensive KYB procedures identify, verify and screen companies to eliminate risk from B2B transactions.
  2. Best-in-class tech
    • Uqudo’s onboarding digital platform can be fully customised according to our client requirements.
    • Our powerful AI document scanner can read and extract data from documents in milliseconds, with unparalleled accuracy.
    • Uqudo SDK is only 10 MB and can be easily integrated into any platform.
  1. Broadest Media Coverage
    • Our KYC verification covers a number of MEA countries.
    • We can verify the national identity cards of countries no other identity player can.
    • We can read and verify passports in 85 countries.
  2. MEA-focused
    • Our onboarding platform is locally present in the MEA region, with unparalleled support to all clients.
    • Our experts have a combined experience of more than 100 years in the identity space, with deep local regulatory knowledge
    • Our facial recognition is geared towards MEA skin tones and facial structure, making it highly accurate.

Not only these, but our digital onboarding platform is also a tried and tested solution for numerous startups, leading financial bodies and governments in the region, making it a truly all-in-one identity solution.