Data Protector: Ranjan R Reddy Almost 100 fintech, regulated financial institutions, and new-age technology businesses use Reddy's Bureau today to ensure their customer interactions are friction and fraud-free.

In a world where businesses are becoming frequent targets of cyberattacks, Ranjan R Reddy's Bureau has become a single source of digital trust to counter cyber frauds. Almost 100 fintech, regulated financial institutions, and new-age technology businesses use Bureau today to ensure their customer interactions are friction and fraud-free.

"Enabling trust between businesses and consumers is how we deliver value. In the process of enabling these trusted financial transactions, we have protected over $200m of commerce from use-cases such as mule accounts, synthetic ID fraud, Phishing, KYC fraud, fraud rings, UPI fraud, money laundering, collusion, OTP theft, and referral abuse, amongst others. Many of our customers have designed their digital user journeys based on Bureau's real-time decisions and monitoring. In this journey, we have built a proprietary trust network of over 45 million verified identities," says Ranjan R Reddy, Founder & CEO, Bureau.

To keep relevant in a constantly changing marketplace, Reddy believes in investing in talent and technology for R&D; collaborating with customers to test emerging market trends, and acquire or partner teams that improve its core competency.

"We are in the business of detecting and preventing cyber fraud. The cat-and-mouse game of catching bad actors demands that we stay ahead of the curve, for our credibility and our customers' business depends on it," says Reddy.

So, what does Reddy consider the biggest challenge? "In our domain, online trust is rapidly being transformed. Every single stakeholder cares about protecting the end consumer from cyber fraud. However, the approach applied is often just of compliance and not proactive prevention. To ensure both, Bureau has built an all-in-one identity orchestration platform that protects identities and transactions for the entire user journey."

On how difficult it is to reach the path of profitability in the tech space, Reddy believes that if one is able to deliver value to a large set of customers in an expanding market using tech to scale, profits will follow. "Delivering value, and delighting customers is the first nut to crack. If one focuses on that while being judicious with cash, one has more influence on the path to profitability."

In December 2021, it raised $12 million in Series A fundling led by Quona Capital with participation from Commerce Ventures and Okta Identity. In next two years, it aims to hit 100 million verified identities in its trust network.

"To this end, we will deepen our presence in India to build on the momentum we have seen thus far. This will include expanding our product portfolio, new partnerships, and investing in talent. In addition, as the scourge of cyber fraud doesn't only plague India, we'll scale our investments in south east Asia, and GCC markets, where we continue to receive encouraging reception for the need and efficacy of our solutions."

Factsheet

Year of inception: 2020

No. of employees: 60

Revenue for FY 2021-22: 12x YoY growth

External funding received so far: $16+ million over two rounds of funding

Major clients: Bajaj Finserv, ICICI Prudential, Rapido, EpiFi, Unicards, Bharat Pe, Stashfin, Aditya Birla Capital, and Matrimony.com