Global technology company Stripe has announced acquiring Bouncer, an Oakland-based company that builds card authentication technology to reduce fraud during online transactions. Stripe will integrate Bouncer’s team and technology to improve the capabilities of Radar, Stripe’s machine-learning-based fraud prevention tool.
Not to be confused with the Polish marketing technology startup Bouncer, which provides bulk email verification, Oakland Bouncer was co-founded by Will Megson and Sam King.
With Bouncer’s card scanning and risk technology, businesses can authenticate cards and reduce fraud. Stripe will integrate Bouncer in its fraud prevention tool Rader. Fully integrated into Stripe’s payments platform, Radar’s machine learning models are trained on purchases made at millions of companies around the globe.
When a specific transaction is identified as a high risk, Radar will employ Bouncer’s card scanning and verification technology to confirm the legitimacy of the card at the time of the purchase. The extra layer of protection will help reduce false positives among potentially high-risk transactions.
Simon Arscott, business lead for Stripe Radar commented:
Bouncer is a great tool for modern internet businesses. It allows them to quickly identify stolen cards, while also ensuring legitimate customers can transact without being blocked. We’re thrilled to welcome the Bouncer team, and their years of experience building payment authentication software for businesses, to Stripe and to enable their technology for Radar users. With the addition of advanced card scanning capabilities, Stripe Radar will be able block more fraud and further increase revenue for millions of businesses around the world who rely on Stripe.
When a transaction is flagged, Bouncer does not block the purchase entirely, a business can use it to verify the card. Bouncer achieves this by requesting live photos of the card which can be taken with a smartphone. The scanning technology supports all card types, cards designs and can even be done in low light.
In the next steps, Bouncer performs a risk assessment to validate if the card is real or stolen, which takes less than 400 milliseconds. All the data being handled is in accordance with PCI and GDPR. The whole process is performed in just under a second.
Will Megson, CEO of Bouncer added:
Will Megson Source: LinkedIn
I’m excited that we’ll be able to scale our advanced card-verification technology across the Stripe network to help businesses grow their revenue while further reducing fraud behind the scenes. The same signals that Radar learns from will make Bouncer more effective, and Bouncer will, in turn, make Radar more effective. We couldn’t be more excited to join the Radar team.
Powered by Stripe’s global network, Stripe Radar “learns” from transactions conducted by millions of businesses that use Stripe in 195 countries including companies such as SkipTheDishes, Slice and TeeSpring. Since its launch, Radar has blocked more than a billion dollars in fraudulent transactions, saving businesses money and eliminating disputed transactions.
The machine learning technology behind Stripe draws from Stripe’s global scale and compounding network effects. Radar has blocked 60% more fraudulent transactions than in 2019.
Radar is part of Stripe’s portfolio of financial products which even the smallest internet business using Stripe for payments can benefit from. Because of the scale it operates on, when a business receives new payment, there is an 89% chance Rader has seen that credit card before.
From this month onward, Radar Analytics Center will give enterprise users more insight into false-positive rates, blocked transactions, and dispute trends. This will allow businesses to align their fraud strategy to their business model.
In April, Stripe launched Stripe Issuing in 20 European countries including Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK.
Stripe recently raised $600 million in the latest funding round at a valuation of $95 billion. Investors in its latest funding round include Allianz X, Axa, Baillie Gifford, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Sequoia Capital and Ireland’s National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).
Experienced writer and journalist, working in the global online trading sector, Steffy is the Editor of LeapRate. She has previous experience as a copywriter and has been with the company since January 2020. Steffy has a British and American Studies degree from St. Kliment Ochridski University in Sofia.
