Fraud Prevention Firm Forter Raises $300M At $3B Valuation

Israeli-founded fraud prevention company Forter announced a $300 million Series F funding round on Tuesday led by Tiger Global Management, with participation from Third Point Ventures and Adage Capital Management. Existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, March Capital, NewView Capital, Salesforce Ventures and Scale Venture Partners, also took part in the investment round.

Founded in 2013 by Israeli entrepreneurs Liron Damri, Alan Shemesh, and Michael Reitblat, Forter developed an automated, identity-based fraud-prevention platform for e-commerce that detects fraudulent activity in real-time, throughout all online consumer experiences. The company works with clients such as Farfetch, ASOS, Shein and Prime Trust, and recently partnered with American bank holding company Capital One to launch Trusted Authorization, a solution that enables merchants to increase authorization rates and decrease false declines by sharing Forter’s fraud insights with issuing banks for more informed decisions.

The fresh funding comes just six months after Forter completed a $125 million Series E round, capping off a huge year in which the company doubled its revenue and its team. With the current round, Forter almost tripled its valuation to $3 billion to become the most valuable privately-held company in the industry.

“We have set a new standard for trust in commerce,” said Reitblat, who serves as CEO. “Forter’s platform brings together merchants, banks and payment providers to dramatically improve authorization rates, eliminate false declines and allow consumers to shop with greater convenience and enjoy a more personalized, secure experience.”

“This transforms fraud prevention into a growth and revenue enablement engine for the entire consortium of participating merchants, ensuring our customers can attract, convert and retain the best shoppers,” he added.

Reitblat also indicated that the fresh funding will be used to invest in “talent, technology and continued global expansion.”

“With the unprecedented rate of digital transformation and the fierce competition in creating the slickest user experience, superior fraud prevention plays an ever more critical role in e-commerce revenue growth,” said John Curtius, partner at Tiger Global Management. “After we talked with dozens of customers of every relevant solution in this space, it was very clear to us that Forter is the clear leader in performance and scale.”