Mati ID verification

Legally verified users with a few lines of code. User verification, KYC onboarding, document ID scanning and biometrics.

The Mati Button is a “Know Your Customer” mobile and desktop tool, easy to use and with great focus on user experience. Using a simple 5min integration, organizations can accept their real users with validated identities. By generating and validating person unique identity our clients are able to accept users with confidence as to their true identity in an entirely automated fashion.

The process works similarly, though smoother, to something like PayPal and works on any platform, phone or browser. The "secret sauce" is in how we generate true user profiles via a standardized process.

First, a "Liveness Check" is performed, in which the user is asked to complete a simple movement with the head in front of the camera so that AI technology may determine whether the person facing the camera during the recording of the video is a real person or a picture fraud attempt. Then, the user is asked to present a document, which may be a passport, a national identity document, driver’s license, or proof of address, which is scanned using our Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology. At the same time, our facial recognition technology confirms whether the photo on the ID is indeed the same as the person in the initial step.

Lastly, in our 'Gov Check' module the information on the document is confronted with government databases and other public sources. In the case of Mexico, the databases consulted are INE (National Electoral Institute), RENAPO (National Population Registry), and SAT (Tax Administration Service), as well as the UN consolidated List, Interpol, and OFAC. This step is made flexible such that our system can work in any region in the World.

Each step is explained clearly and in a friendly manner, with animations geared towards both tech-savvy users verifying themselves on crypto exchanges as well as people with limited understanding of technology proving their identity during a social welfare collection. The process was developed expressly to make it super easy for the users to go through in underdeveloped regions.

Once the verification process is finished, the user is requested to provide an e-mail, so that they can, in future applications, re-use their Mati profile, which is unique and accessible only to the user. Furthermore, although the data is collected and the profile created, all the information is encrypted in such a way that only the user, may access. The Mati staff will not have access to the collected data of the user, and malicious third parties cannot access to it either since it’s protected through E2EE and Zero Knowledge mechanisms.

Currently, this tool is used by companies, mainly in the Latin and North markets, but also some government institutions. Our scope is to scale globally, primarily in underdeveloped regions where this technology is most needed, generating a grid of trust that eases access to all basic services, from financing to Government services, and even to p2p sharing services like Airbnb.

We are creating a flexible identity technology by developing biometrics, mobile document scanning, and special encryption methods, in order to liberate the World from the existing data brokers, and allow the poorest citizens to have access to financial services, access to work, Government services, and other basic tools that require strong proof of identity.

Mati was selected one of the top 50 young startups in INC: https://www.inc.com/yeho-lucy-... and it was placed second best product by product hunt. 

The Mati ID has privacy built in at its foundation. Our team and third parties cannot have access to users information collected, but only the user may allow specific services, e.g. a bank to specific parts of their ideneity, e.g. their proof of address. Our security team uses cutting edge encryption methods such as E2EE and Zero Knowledge Proofs ensuring that no malicious third parties access the sensitive user data.

The Mati Button is very easy to implement through our simple API, for organizations, big or small. We are proud to work for companies as small as 2 people, as big as some of the largest financial companies, and even government institutions serving their citizens. Clients can customize their verification flow, according to the documents they will require from users. After a quick integration our API on any of their platforms every new user will be able to click on a "check in" button to verify their ID, much like we are used to clicking on a "check out" buttons on e-commerce sites.

Each unique user profile generated can be further used as a reliable digital identification form, so that several companies, which already use or accept the Mati Button, would not need for each user to re-identify themselves, but instead just allow a “log-in” with users who already went through our verification process.

The Mati Button is very easy to incorporate and use both for companies and users. Users just have to follow the easy steps to verify their identity the first time they use the Mati Button and, on future occasions, will be able to simply “log-in” instead of going through the verification process all over again. This is possible due to the unique features of the digital profile/ID generated.

Our API documentation is open to anyone interested in reading it. There is no risk of vendor lock in, since the data belongs to the companies, as it does to the users. We simply provide tools for companies, and organizations to interact with their users or constituents in an easy and cheap fashion.

We already work with companies who service low connectivity regions. They solve this issue with field agents who use a phone with Mati on it. The agents are tasked with verifying people at local hotspots like malls, bank branches etc (much like the Aadhaar project in India). The people can also generate their profile using any other device, such as internet cafes. If a user has access to any form of broadband internet, they can use Mati. 

We want to meet the people where they are. That means improving our "flexible identity string" to include more general identity proofs to include non-formal documents, such as pay stubs, proof of salary, and 3rd party attestations and development of user reputation. The proof of identity can be established even without a formal ID. In a few years, we want to help build the p2p economy, where there are no 3rd parties in the middle. We believe this wave is going to be transformational for places like Africa.

Currently, Mati works with companies that engage its Mati KYC services. Mati’s clients are generally FinTech providers, companies which provide services and must verify the identities of their employees, sharing & on-demand providers, and others. Moreover, Mati is actively pursuing deals with government entities, such as the Mexican Senate and the INE (Mexican National Electoral Institute), and its main goal is to achieve a wide network of identified users, and entities which recognize such identifications. We are excited and proud to offer our services beyond the private sector.

Even though startups are infamous for fast turn around of employees, the mati team is composed of individuals particularly excited about the impact of ID technology. Three unique units:

- Security: in their spare time engineers review blockchain implementations and even niche government financial white papers.
- Legal & Compliance: In coming from top legal firms, our legal team participate in our project for similar unique reasons - access to impactful technology within the legal and the political domain.
- A.I.: From places like Stanford AI labs and LG r&d, our engineers find the privacy driven AI a fascinating research topic.

We already have revenue. We charge companies for user verification. It's a simple per-user pricing, with no other fees. The for profit nature of our development allows us to also partner with certain governmental and non-profit institutions and offer our services pro-bono. 

We are passionate about bringing identity for all mission to the regions in the World that most need it. We were able to push this mission through the corridors of venture capital hallways in SV, and we are now looking for additional resources that will help us bring it to the masses. We believe a strong exposure from such pristine institutions such as The World Bank and MIT will allow us to "cross the chasm" with some of the more conservative places in the World that need to see social proof before seriously considering deploying solutions in their jurisdictions.

Social proof is the primary barrier. We already work with some of the biggest tech names in the industry, and even some government programs. However, organizations that most need this technology, non-profits, and government institutions, often have the hardest time assessing viability of technology applications. A vote of confidence would go a long way in addressing that problem, and giving our solution the exposure it needs in order to "meet the people where they are."