A digital identity is increasingly becoming a prerequisite in today’s online-first lifestyle to access services ranging from finance to healthcare and beyond. Thus, digital identity platforms are becoming essential to accelerating compliance processes while protecting our data from cybersecurity threats and ID fraud.
The global digital identity solution market is projected to grow from USD 23.3 billion in 2020 to USD 49.5 billion in 2026, according to Statista. In Indonesia, Jakarta-based Privy leads this sector.
The company was founded in 2016 as PrivyID. Initially, it mainly focused on digital signature services. In October 2021, the firm rebranded as Privy when it expanded its offerings to include services such as authentication systems and electronic know your customer tools for enterprises. “The e-signature is only one of the digital identity’s components,” Privy CEO Marshall Pribadi told KrASIA.
The startup serves over 18 million individual users and 1,400 enterprises, mainly in the financial sector, including Indonesia’s largest lenders like Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Bank Mandiri, Bank CIMB Niaga, and Bank Danamon. “When you apply for a credit card on BRI’s website, there is an option to ‘login with Privy,’ which means you don’t need to fill out forms anymore as your data is already recorded on Privy,” said Pribadi. Privy is the only company providing such services in Indonesia, Pribadi added.
After raising USD 17.5 million in October in a Series B round led by GGV Capital, Privy is expanding its operations to Europe. The company also plans to tap the Australian market next year. KrASIA recently talked to Pribadi about Privy’s impact on Indonesia’s digital economy and its overseas expansion.
This interview has been edited and consolidated for clarity and brevity.
KrASIA (Kr): How will you utilize the recent investment?
Marshall Pribadi (MP): We’ll continue to strengthen infrastructure, especially IT security, to serve our users better. At the end of 2020, we only had around 300 enterprise clients, but now, we have about 1,400 clients. Many of them are multinational corporations such as Allianz, Zurich Insurance Group, and Generali. The transaction value and frequency of these companies are high, so we need to secure more documents.
Kr: Privy collects the personal data of millions of users. How does the company ensure the service is secure and reliable?
MP: From the start, we allocated significant investment in security. In 2017, we were one of the first startups to comply with ISO 27001, an international standard for information security management. We’re also the first electronic certification provider to receive recognition from Indonesia’s IT ministry and hold the “PSrE Berinduk” (Root Certificate Authority) status. This means every document signed using Privy has the highest evidentiary power. Moreover, we have military-grade federal information processing standards (FIPS) servers that will destroy all data automatically if a hack is found in the system. We’ll continue strengthening these efforts to ensure the data security of each user.
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Kr: Why is digital identity essential in the finance industry? How is Privy assisting companies in this sector?
MP: For banks and other financial institutions, manual data entry carries risks, as people may use fake IDs to apply for loans or credit cards. Also, if a customer uses a handwritten signature, banks must send a courier to collect the signed documents, which takes time. Privy eliminates that process.
Since 2019, we have gained agreement access to the national ID data and facial biometrics database administered by Indonesia’s Population and Civil Registration to verify the identity of users. Our data shows that Privy’s business clients experienced improvements after partnering with us. For example, the approval rate of credit card applications has improved by 61.2%, while the loan origination process time has been reduced from seven days to a maximum of four hours. Also, the drop rate when opening a new online stock trading account has decreased from 60% to 5%.
Kr: How are Privy’s expansion plans in Europe going?
MP: We are partnering with a SaaS company called ZettaByte. The startup provides enterprise resource planning software to manage end-to-end operations of private colleges and universities in France and other countries in Europe. They work with about 250 academic institutions in Europe. They needed a provider to facilitate digital signatures, so they came to us. Our service will be officially available on ZettaByte’s platforms by the end of this year.
Kr: What are your plans and targets for 2022 and beyond?
MP: We currently have 1 million monthly active users, but we’re targeting 10 million by next year. Therefore, we will add more use cases and work with more industries. For instance, we are exploring collaborations with hospitals to allow new patients to register at different health centers with Privy. We also plan to work with local and regional media outlets to enable readers to subscribe to media content using Privy’s ID.
In addition, we hope to expand to Australia next year. Australia has a trusted digital identity system that grants accreditation to digital ID providers, including foreign companies. We plan to apply for this accreditation next year to set up a business there, as we see a lot of potential in this market.