Numeracle raises $28M to expand identity verification platform

Numeracle raised $28 million in growth funding. The McLean, Virginia-based startup will use the capital to expand its identity verification platform beyond phone calls into new channels like messaging, chat apps, marketplaces, and AI agents.

The funding round was led solely by Edison Partners. This investment brings Numeracle's total funding since its 2018 founding to $34.8 million, following a $6.8 million Series A in December 2023. The company also achieved profitability in the current year.

Platform Expansion and New Markets

Numeracle plans to adapt its verification tools for use in digital messaging, chat applications, online marketplaces, and interactions with AI agents. Interest from European markets has prompted plans for international expansion beyond its current United States-only operations. The new capital will fuel hiring and the growth of sales, product development, and research teams to support this move.

Customer Demand and Market Validation

The company reports strong market validation, with 90% of its sales inquiries arriving through unpaid inbound channels. It has seen a 70% increase in its annualized revenue run rate over the past 16 months. Numeracle now serves 4,000 business customers, ranging from independent local operators to Fortune 500 brands, across several key industries.

Customer interviews have shown tangible results. One enterprise brand reported its answered calls rising from 19,000 to 22,000 out of 40,000 monthly attempts after using Numeracle's service. A national study conducted by the company found that 69% of U.S. consumers have missed, ignored, or declined a call because they could not trust the caller identification information.

The Identity Verification Approach

Numeracle provides an Entity Identity Management platform. It verifies that a business is a legitimate operating entity and associates that verified identity with its communications infrastructure. This goes beyond traditional number reputation management, which merely monitors for spam labels. By engaging telecommunications carriers with verified business identity data, Numeracle helps ensure legitimate calls are not blocked. Verified businesses can also use branded calling to display their name on outgoing calls.

Founder and CEO Rebekah Johnson, who previously worked in regulatory compliance, built the platform to address identity fraud at its root. "We built Entity Identity Management because fraud and impersonation are not fundamentally communications problems, they are identity problems," Johnson stated. The company is also developing a managed business identity verification service known as Know Your Customer as a Service (KYCaaS).

Investor Lenard Marcus, a general partner at Edison Partners, cited Johnson's telecommunications and engineering experience, the company's growth, and its relationships with both businesses and carriers as key factors in the investment. He noted her ability to achieve more with less funding. The rise of artificial intelligence has made distinguishing real businesses from fake ones harder, a challenge Numeracle's verification model is positioned to address. Johnson highlighted this specific concern, saying, "The scary part for me isn’t necessarily the AI voices. It’s actually AI-built businesses."

The company expects its managed verification services to help carriers address potential new requirements from the Federal Communications Commission aimed at reducing communications fraud. With 85 employees, Numeracle will now use its new $28 million in capital for hiring and international expansion into messaging, chat apps, marketplaces, and AI agents.