Perth-based early-stage venture firm Fund WA has made its tenth investment, an undisclosed-size seed-round investment in compliance software start-up personr.
Personr was set up in 2021 by friends Nick Ahrens and Charlie Westerman after Westerman had his identity stolen and had to spend tens of thousands to rectify the problem.
The objective of the start-up was to make identity verification and fraud detection more accessible to small businesses.
According to Fund WA, personr is transforming how businesses manage identity verification and anti-money laundering compliance. The software platform, which takes only minutes to set up, offers end-to-end customer onboarding and monitoring capabilities, combining biometric verification, document authentication and anti-money laundering screening. Risk assessment capabilities can also be customised to meet specific requirements.
Fund WA analyst Trent Rachow said personr was making compliance genuinely easy for hundreds of thousands of businesses.
With Australia’s Tranche 2 anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing reforms coming into effect from 1 July 2006, personr will be well-positioned to support additional businesses in areas such as legal services accounting and real estate, according to Fund WA.
The new funding will enable the business to provide services to more than 100,000 additional customers, according to Ahrens and Westerman.
Fund WA was launched in early 2023 with a target of raising $100 million to invest in very early-stage West Australian technology businesses. The fund is supported through the state government’s New Industries Fund which is administered by the Department of Jobs, Tourism, Science and Innovation.
Image: Personr co-founder and identity theft victim Charlie Westerman.