MIT Solve

Basic Information

Solution Name

ID Fort

Tagline:

Using a Facial recognition technology, powered by AI, internet users can effectively manage access to their data.

Pitch:

The financial landscape have experienced various fraudulent practices which have left most companies with no option but to be strict on Know Your Customer(KYC) compliance. These measures taken may have reduced those ill occurrences, but it have financially excluded some people who may not have met those requirements.

Most financial institutions spend a lot of money in ensuring they are KYC compliant. They can also incur some fines should they decide to cut corners. Apart from the cost implications, there is also a considerable amount of time spent on making sure that the customer is who they say they are.

Performing customer due diligence is pertinent to making sure that financial institutions do comply with the requirements of relevant legislation and regulation, to provide them with the products or services requested

to guard against fraud, including impersonation and identity fraud
There is also no doubt that technological advancements have solved many problems in various industries. The adoption of these technologies in the financial space have nipped some problems at the bud. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence powered solutions, Data analysis tools, Blockchain integration and so many more have gone a long way to revolutionize the financial landscape.

Our solution aims to financially include the those that have been excluded using a facial recognition. This is powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Financial institutions can now be able to perform customer due diligence at a minimal cost and within a considerable time.

Elevator pitch:

Solution location:

Accra, Ghana

Financial Inclusion, Identity verification, user control

Solution's stage of development:

Pilot

About Your Solution

What makes the solution innovative:

Using facial recognition technology powered by Artificial Intelligence, we are able to provide identity verification for users. With this identity, they can easily have access and control to various platforms that makes use of their data.

We are focused on financial inclusion. Helping people have access to financial services by verifying their identities against a authorized source.

How the solution demonstrates 'privacy by design':

Our solution uses facial recognition and the USSD technology. For the less tech savvy, the USSD provides pin codes that could be used in granting access to specific and vital information. This is done in order to reduce the access be non authorized personnel. This is simply giving the users strong control on the usage of their data. Users have the option of opting out of any platform that they don't want to have access to their data.

How the solution can be incorporated into digital identification systems:

we make use of facial recognition technologies to make identities verifiable. We can incorporate identity verification systems by extracting the right information from the documents submitted and having them matched to the digital identification systems that have already been established.

Endpoints to return details and validity of government issued IDs if an image of the ID is provided,
Endpoints to verify identity ownership if an image of a person (eg. a selfie) and their government issued ID document ID number is provided
Endpoints to search for identity data if an image of a person is provided.

How the solution is 'user-friendly':

Our product has an API that can easily be consumed by any system. The parameters are fed in and analyzed, the result is then sent back for decisions to be made. A detailed documentation is provided to make integration seamless.

How the solution ensures interoperability:

We have a robust API for facial recognition, character extraction from images(IDs), facial comparison, enrolling of faces. These are various endpoints that are ready to be consumed by anyone we give access to.

Data can easily be shared with the provided endpoints and then further analysis can be carried out on the data provided.

How the solution accounts for low connectivity environments and for users with low literacy and numeracy levels:

We intend to use the USSD technology for users that have low literacy or low connectivity. This uses interactive personal questions to make sure their identities cannot be hijacked. With this, they can have access to loans and can easily be credit scored.

Vision over the next three to five years to implement or grow the solution to affect the lives of more people:

We are gearing to becoming a global identity verification company, helping African businesses in particular to fight fraud.

Identity verification and user data control is huge. With continuous advancements in technological innovations, the possibilities are endless. The financial institutions are not finding it easy to meet the KYC requirements. They ask for one form of identification or another which the customer may not have. We are going to make it more cost efficient to satisfy the KYC requirements and at the same time have the customer go through less stress.

Solution website

http://www.bacegroup.com/

Country where the solution primarily operates:

Ghana

About Your Team

How the solution team is organized:

For-Profit

How many people work on the solution:

1-5

Solution age:

Less than 1 year

The organizations applicants are currently working with:

We are currently in talks with a financial institution(bank) and another company in the fintech space.

The bank intends to use our product to onboard undergraduate students. Making it seamless for them to own a bank account. This is a way of banking the unbanked and further drive to more financial inclusion.

The other company wants to integrate our API in their payment solution. This will be an extra layer of security. To make sure the transactions carried out can be traced to a verified user.

Applicant skills that can attract the different resources needed to succeed and make an impact:

We are four friends passionate about using technology to change the face of Africa. We all met and took part in the prestigious MESTprogram. MEST which stands for Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology, grooms aspiring entrepreneurs to build startups that solve real problems.

The program is a hands-on training on software development, business and communications. We have respective skills in sales, business development, design and software engineering.

We understand what it takes to build a startup. Getting feedback from the users and keep adjusting to make the product more user centric.

Revenue model:

$0.5/1000 API calls.
$500/hr support fees (on-premise on demand)

This is the charge per number of API calls. The higher the number of API calls for text extraction and identity verification, the more revenue that is generated.

Partnership Potential