Persona (identity verification service)
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software |
| Founded | October 2018 |
| Founders |
|
| Headquarters | San Francisco, California, United States |
| Services | Identity verification |
| Website | withpersona |
Persona Identities, Inc. is an American identity verification company headquartered in San Francisco. The company develops infrastructure for businesses to verify individuals and organizations, manage user onboarding, and comply with KYC/AML requirements.[1][2] Persona is a consumer-facing platform.[3]
History
The company was founded in 2018 by Charles Yeh and Rick Song,[4] who were former engineers at Dropbox and Square, respectively. Persona was originally positioned as providing identity verification to prevent fraud. Song explained that "we found identity was critical for anything from account recovery to verifying for fraud, or building trust and safety for a delivery, to ensuring there's trust between two peers for transferring money."[5] In contrast to other identity management vendors, the company did not focus on a specific industry, with its initial clients ranging from fintech companies to food delivery and short-term rental providers.[6]
In February 2026, Persona became the subject of controversy for its work with the U.S. government's Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program and a security researcher's discovery of publicly exposed code from the identity-services company.[7]
Products and services
Persona’s platform provides document and biometric identity verification for compliance with know your customer (KYC) regulations. Its technologies also include proprietary selfie "liveness" checks.[8][9]
Persona has increasingly been used for age verification to comply with age assurance laws for social media services, including the United Kingdom's Online Safety Act 2023 and Australia's Online Safety Amendment (Social Media Minimum Age) Act 2024, and various state-level legislation in the United States[10][11][12][13][14], as well as by companies, such as OpenAI, to prevent exposure to sensitive or adult content by minors.[15]
Reception and privacy concerns
Persona and other third‑party age verification providers have been cited in broader debates about the privacy and security implications of online age checks. News coverage of Reddit’s UK rollout focused on short photo retention windows and the separation of user account data from verification data, while also highlighting civil liberties concerns about expanding age restrictions online.[16]
See also
References
- ^ Azevedo, Mary Ann (May 4, 2021). "Persona lands $50M for identity verification after seeing 10x YoY revenue growth". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
- ^ "US identity platform Persona hits $2bn valuation after $200m Series D". FinTech Futures. May 2, 2025. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
- ^ Tucker, Hank (February 13, 2024). "The Future Of Wall Street And Enterprise: Fintech 50 2024". Forbes.
- ^ "Persona and Index Ventures talk identity, and identifying a good deal". TechCrunch. May 9, 2023. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
- ^ Luce, Ivan De (February 16, 2021). "Why the founder of digital identity platform Persona feels a 'looming sense of dread'". The Business of Business. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ^ Borak, Masha (April 15, 2025). "OpenAI to introduce IDV screening for organizations". Biometric Update. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ^ Gioino, Catherina. "Discord distances itself from Peter Thiel–backed verification software after its code was found on a U.S. government server". Fortune. Retrieved February 26, 2026.
- ^ "Persona raises $150M, renews development efforts in digital ID solutions and infrastructures". Biometric Update. September 16, 2021. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
- ^ "AI Is Making The Internet's Bot Problem Worse. This $2 Billion Startup Is On The Front Lines". Forbes. April 30, 2025. Retrieved November 15, 2025.
- ^ "Reddit introduces age verification in the UK ahead of new rules". BBC News. July 14, 2025. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ McConvey, Joel R. (July 15, 2025). "Reddit deploys selfie and document age verification from Persona". Biometric Update. Retrieved July 15, 2025.
- ^ Yeo, Amanda (July 15, 2025). "Reddit users in the UK must now upload selfies to access NSFW subreddits". Mashable. Retrieved July 24, 2025.
- ^ Malik, Aisha (November 18, 2025). "Roblox will require all users to perform age checks to access chat starting in January". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ^ Malik, Aisha (January 7, 2026). "Roblox now requires all users globally to complete age checks to access chat". TechCrunch. Retrieved January 13, 2026.
- ^ Capoot, Ashley (January 20, 2026). "OpenAI is rolling out age prediction for ChatGPT consumer plans". CNBC. Retrieved February 22, 2026.
- ^ Forristal, Lauren (July 15, 2025). "Reddit rolls out age verification in the UK to comply with new rules". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 15, 2025.