Sells banks, card issuers and other enterprises API-based identity verification and authentication built on mobile-carrier and phone-possession signals, sold through enterprise contracts and through banking platforms such as Backbase, Temenos, Blend and Alloy, and since 2025 extended to verifying AI agents.
What is Prove Identity, and which banks use it?
Prove Identity (formerly Payfone, founded 2008, New York) is a private company that verifies and authenticates people from mobile-phone signals, best known for Pre-Fill, which fills account applications with verified data. Backers include Apax Digital, MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures; TechCrunch reported a valuation above $1 billion in 2023. Prove says 19 of the top 20 US banks use it. Among our banks, Synchrony uses Pre-Fill for card applications and FNBO for co-branded card onboarding. Pricing is not published.
Category
Founded
2008
Headquarters
New York, New York, US
Ownership
Private (Prove Identity, Inc., formerly Payfone); backers include Apax Digital (led a $100 million round in June 2020), Oak HC/FT, MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures (co-led a $40 million round in October 2023), with Synchrony, Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and Wellington Management among 2020 participants. Prove did not disclose the 2023 valuation; TechCrunch, citing sources close to the company, reported it above $1 billion. No later round or sale has been announced.[9][10][4][5]
Deployment
API (cloud), with SDKs and a self-serve developer sandbox; also offered inside Backbase, Temenos Exchange, Blend and Alloy
Pricing
Sales-led enterprise contracts for API identity verification and authentication; free developer sandbox · not published
Banks among the 120
2
- Founded in 2008 as Payfone, a carrier-billing payments company, it moved into identity verification around 2015 and rebranded as Prove on July 29, 2020, the same day it bought Early Warning Services' mobile authentication lines of business, including Authentify.
- Funding: $100 million led by Apax Digital in June 2020 (Payfone said it had raised $175 million to date) and $40 million co-led by MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures in October 2023, which TechCrunch reported valued Prove above $1 billion; Prove has not stated a valuation itself.
- Prove's customer claims have grown from 7 of the top 10 US banks and 500 financial institutions (2020) to 9 of the top 10 (2023) and 19 of the top 20 US banks (2025-2026); it names few of them (vendor-reported).
- Synchrony is the most documented bank customer: Prove says Synchrony has used Pre-Fill since 2018 and had completed 25 million card applications with it by July 2022, and Synchrony's head of authentication was quoted in Prove's September 2026 release.
- Credit unions and smaller banks reach Prove through platforms: Alloy (2022), Backbase (2025), Temenos Exchange (2025) and Blend, where Prove says BCU, a credit union with 360,000 members, cut application drop-off by 16% (vendor-reported).
- Acquisitions: Early Warning's mobile authentication business (2020), behavioral-biometrics firm UnifyID (announced June 2021) and reusable-ID company Portabl (January 2025).
- Pricing is not published; developers can test in a sandbox without talking to sales or giving a credit card, but production use is contracted.
What does Prove Identity sell to banks?
| Product | What it does | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Prove Pre-Fill (consumer and business)[24][14][19] | Authenticates the phone in the applicant's hand, then returns verified identity data (name, address, date of birth, Social Security number) to pre-populate an application, with the customer's consent. | Generally available |
| Identity verification and account opening (Prove Identity, Account Opening, Human Assurance, Verified User)[19][1] | Identity checks at onboarding that verify device possession, reputation flags and device ownership; listed as generally available on the Prove Identity Platform. | Generally available |
| Prove Unified Authentication[25][3][18] | Passive, device-key authentication for returning users that steps up to other methods only when needed, intended to replace SMS one-time passcodes; extended to Wi-Fi and mobile web in September 2026. | Generally available |
| Prove Identity Platform (Key Management, Identity Manager, Global Fraud Policy)[19][25] | The unified foundation under all Prove products since April 2026: device-bound keys, identity-change alerts and a network-wide fraud policy with reason codes. | Generally available |
| ProveX[17][19] | A digital trust exchange, launched December 17, 2025, that lets an enterprise pull verified data and credentials from certified partners (launch partners Checkr Trust, Nova Credit, Skipify, Trinsic, Wyzia) once a customer's identity is confirmed. | Generally available |
| Agentic Suite (Prove Verified Agent)[15][19] | Verifies an AI agent and the person behind it and binds identity, intent, payment credentials and consent into a signed record; Verified Agent launched October 23, 2025. | Generally available |
| Privacy-preserving biometrics and KYC compliance[20] | Liveness, document verification and biometric authentication built into Prove flows, led by Frances Zelazny; in development with design partners, with general availability planned for later in 2026. | Announced |
How much does Prove Identity cost?
How it is charged: Sales-led enterprise contracts for API identity verification and authentication; free developer sandbox.
Prove Identity does not publish a price list.
Pricing is not published; prove.com has no pricing page and production use is contracted through sales. Since the April 2025 developer-portal relaunch, developers can test in Prove's sandbox without talking to a sales representative or providing a credit card, but no per-check or plan prices are listed. Prove's claim that Unified Authentication cuts authentication costs by 50% is a vendor-reported saving, not a price.
Which banks use Prove Identity?
| Bank | What | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Synchrony Financial | Prove Pre-Fill and Identity in Synchrony's credit card application and account opening (a partner since 2018, 25 million applications by July 2022); Synchrony's head of authentication said in September 2026 it will use Prove's expanded silent authentication.[2][3] | In production |
| First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO) | Prove Pre-Fill identity verification for onboarding to FNBO's co-branded credit cards, announced August 2025.[1] | In production |
Among the 120 largest US banks on this site, from sources that name the bank: the bank, Prove Identity or the press. Status is the furthest stage a source confirms.
What is Prove Identity Platform?
Launched April 22, 2026 as the single foundation for all Prove products (Pre-Fill, Account Opening, Human Assurance, Verified User, Unified Authentication, Know Your Payee, ProveX and the Agentic Suite), with three default components: Prove Key Management (device-bound cryptographic keys), Prove Identity Manager (alerts on device, phone-number and carrier changes) and Prove Global Fraud Policy.[19]
What has Prove Identity done, and when?
- Sep 30, 2026
Extends silent authentication to Wi-Fi and mobile web[3]
Prove extended SIM-based cryptographic authentication to Wi-Fi and mobile web, said it processes more than 10 billion authentications a year, and quoted Synchrony's head of authentication on the expansion.
- Jun 2, 2026
Hires Frances Zelazny to build biometrics[20]
Prove appointed Frances Zelazny, former Anonybit CEO, as general manager of new market innovations to build privacy-preserving biometric and KYC compliance products, then in development with design partners.
- Apr 22, 2026
Launches the Prove Identity Platform[19]
Prove moved all its products onto one Prove Identity Platform with key management, identity monitoring and a global fraud policy, and expanded its suite of tools for AI agents.
- Dec 17, 2025
Launches ProveX trust exchange[17]
Prove launched ProveX, an exchange through which enterprises retrieve verified data and credentials from certified partners once a customer's identity is confirmed.
- Oct 23, 2025
Launches Prove Verified Agent[15]
Prove launched Verified Agent to verify AI agents acting for consumers and businesses, linking verified identity, intent, payment credentials and consent in a cryptographic chain of custody.
- Aug 27, 2025
FNBO adopts Pre-Fill for co-branded cards[1]
Prove announced an alliance with FNBO (First National Bank of Omaha) to use Prove Pre-Fill in onboarding for its co-branded credit cards.
- Jan 14, 2025
Acquires Portabl[12]
Prove acquired Portabl, a reusable digital-ID company built on W3C verifiable-credential standards, to let verified users reuse their identity across services.
- Jul 16, 2024
Opens a developer self-service platform[11]
Prove announced a developer self-service platform and the Prove Link SDK, and hired Eric Lesser as chief financial officer and Catherine Porter as chief business officer.
- Oct 17, 2023
- Jul 7, 2022
Synchrony passes 25 million applications with Pre-Fill[2]
Prove said Synchrony, a partner since 2018, had completed 25 million credit card applications using Pre-Fill and Identity, cutting the fields applicants complete by 80% (vendor-reported).
- Jun 1, 2021
Agrees to acquire UnifyID[7]
Prove announced it would acquire UnifyID, a mobile behavioral-biometrics and push-authentication company backed by NEA and Andreessen Horowitz, to reduce customers' reliance on one-time passcodes and passwords.
- Jul 29, 2020
Rebrands as Prove and buys Early Warning's mobile authentication business[5][6]
Payfone became Prove and acquired Early Warning Services' mobile authentication, multi-factor authentication and Authentify lines of business, ending a partnership in place since 2013; Prove said it served 500 financial institutions, including 7 of the top 10 US banks.
- Jun 18, 2020
$100 million round led by Apax Digital[4]
Apax Digital led a $100 million round with MassMutual Ventures, Synchrony, Sandbox Insurtech Ventures and Wellington Management; Payfone said it had raised $175 million to date, was profitable and processed 20 billion authentications in 2019, mostly for banks.
- Jan 1, 2008
Founded as Payfone[4]
Payfone was founded in 2008 to let consumers pay through mobile-carrier billing; around 2015 it began applying its phone and network data to verifying users for carriers and banks.
What do banks use Prove Identity for?
| Use | What it does | Status | Use case |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer identification at account opening[2][1][24] | Verified identity data pre-filled into card and deposit applications for the bank's customer identification checks, as at Synchrony and FNBO. | In production | AML / KYC |
| Account-opening and synthetic-identity fraud[2][1] | Phone-possession, reputation and ownership checks to stop application fraud such as synthetic identities before an account is opened. | In production | Fraud detection |
| Passive authentication replacing SMS one-time passcodes[25][3] | Device-bound cryptographic keys and SIM-based checks for logins and high-risk transactions, with step-up only when a key cannot be validated. | In production | Cybersecurity |
| Pre-Fill through banking platforms[14][16][23][8] | Prove Pre-Fill embedded in Backbase, Temenos Exchange, Blend and Alloy, so banks and credit unions can add it through their existing onboarding vendor. | In production | Third-party & vendor AI |
| Verifying AI agents in payments[15][19] | Verified Agent and the Agentic Suite tie an AI agent's actions and payments to a verified person and their consent; no bank customer has been named for it. | Announced | Generative & agentic AI |
What has Prove Identity disclosed in numbers?
| Metric | Value | As of |
|---|---|---|
| US bank and enterprise customers (vendor-reported) | 19 of the top 20 US banks and more than 1,500 brands worldwide[1] | Aug 27, 2025 |
| Valuation (as reported by TechCrunch) | Above $1 billion after a $40 million round; Prove did not disclose a figure[10] | Oct 17, 2023 |
| Authentication volume (vendor-reported) | More than 10 billion authentications a year, more than 27 million a day[3] | Sep 30, 2026 |
| Identity graph (vendor-reported) | More than 10 billion devices and 2.5 billion verified identities across 227 countries and territories[21] | Aug 12, 2026 |
| Synchrony results (vendor-reported) | 25 million card applications completed; 80% fewer fields to fill; 93% of digital customers offered Pre-Fill choose it[2] | Jul 7, 2022 |
| BCU credit union via Blend (vendor-reported) | Application drop-off down 16%; manual data entry down 54% (Prove reports the same averages across institutions using Pre-Fill in Blend)[23][22] | Aug 13, 2026 |
| Developer sandbox access | Free sandbox without a sales call or a credit card; production use is contracted[13] | Apr 1, 2025 |
| Pre-Fill results claimed by Prove (vendor-reported) | Up to 79% faster onboarding, 35% less abandonment and 75% less fraud (relative to attack rate)[9] | Oct 17, 2023 |
| Ireland R&D hub | More than $5 million invested and 50 jobs planned in Dublin[18] | Apr 2, 2026 |
“Prove is an essential technology partner helping us to grow our co-branded card portfolio while mitigating risk and keeping our customers safe”[1]
Brianne Stephan · Director Global Project Management and Segment Capabilities, FNBO · Aug 27, 2025
“Prove’s solutions allow us to streamline our digital application experience while reducing potential fraud risks”[2]
Max Axler · SVP and Deputy Chief Credit Officer, Synchrony · Jul 7, 2022
“AI can fabricate a face or clone a voice, but it cannot replicate a decade of real digital behavior”[19]
Rodger Desai · Chief Executive Officer, Prove · Apr 22, 2026
Who runs Prove Identity?
Which rules apply to a bank using Prove Identity?
| Authority | Why it matters here | Documents |
|---|---|---|
| FinCEN | Prove Pre-Fill returns name, address, date of birth and Social Security number that a bank then uses in its customer identification program, so the bank still owns CIP and BSA/AML compliance; Prove's phone-possession checks are also bought against the deepfake and synthetic-identity fraud FinCEN's 2024 alert describes. | FIN-2024-Alert004 (Deepfake Media) 2018 Joint Statement on BSA/AML Innovation |
| OCC | A bank relying on Prove for onboarding and login authentication takes on third-party risk under OCC Bulletin 2023-17, including fourth-party dependence on the mobile carriers and data sources behind Prove's signals; OCC Bulletin 2026-13 sets model-risk expectations for Prove's fraud scoring and Global Fraud Policy. | OCC Bulletin 2023-17 OCC Bulletin 2026-13 |
| Federal Reserve | Prove's risk scores and pass/fail identity results feed account-opening decisions, making them vendor models a bank must inventory, validate and monitor under SR 26-2; Verified Agent and other agentic tools fall to the bank's broader risk management, which SR 26-2 leaves outside its scope. | SR 26-2 |
| CFPB | When a Prove identity or fraud result causes a bank to decline a credit card or loan application, for example in card onboarding of the kind Synchrony and FNBO run with Prove, ECOA/Regulation B and FCRA adverse-action notice duties apply to that decision and the reasons given. | ECOA / Regulation B adverse action (15 U.S.C. 1691(d); 12 CFR 1002.9) FCRA adverse action and credit-score disclosures (15 U.S.C. 1681m, 1681g(f)) |
| Federal Communications Commission (carrier customer data) | Prove's possession, tenure and SIM signals come from mobile carriers; how carriers may share subscriber data is governed by the FCC's customer proprietary network information rules, so a bank's due diligence covers the consent flow Prove uses before it pulls carrier data. |
Linked authorities have a page in the Regulation tracker; the others are named for completeness.
What should a bank note before buying Prove Identity?
Analysis by BankingNewsAI from the sources cited on this page. Observations, not advice or a recommendation.
01
Pricing is not published
Prove lists no plans or per-check prices; the free sandbox lets developers test, but production costs depend on a negotiated contract, and Prove's 50% authentication-cost saving is its own claim.
02
Few bank customers are named
Prove says 19 of the top 20 US banks use it but names few; Synchrony (since 2018) and FNBO (2025) are the two of our tracked banks with a public, described use.
03
Performance figures are vendor-reported
The 79% faster onboarding, 75% fraud reduction, Synchrony's 80% fewer fields and BCU's 16% lower drop-off come from Prove's releases and case studies, measured against each customer's prior process.
04
Customer counts differ by release
Prove has described its base as 1,000+ businesses (2020-2023), more than 1,500 brands (2025), 'thousands' and 2,000+ companies (2026); the bank claim moved from 7 of the top 10 (2020) to 19 of the top 20 (2025).
05
The data comes from mobile carriers
TechCrunch noted in 2020 that questions had been raised about how phone-data identity firms source and use carrier data; buyers reviewing Prove look at consumer consent and the carrier agreements behind its signals.
06
The valuation is a press report
Prove has not stated a valuation; the 'above $1 billion' figure is TechCrunch's 2023 report citing sources, and no funding round has been announced since.
What are the alternatives to Prove Identity?
Socure
Identity verification, fraud scoring and watchlist screening for account opening and login, run on its RiskOS decisioning platform.
Alloy
Identity and fraud prevention platform: onboarding KYC/KYB, fraud and login risk scoring, AML monitoring and data orchestration.
Jumio
Identity verification platform: ID and selfie checks, liveness and deepfake detection, AML screening and continuous identity monitoring.
Persona
Identity verification platform: government ID, selfie and database checks, KYC/KYB, watchlist screening, case review and fraud-ring graphs.
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
Fraud, identity and financial-crime compliance data and analytics: ThreatMetrix, Emailage, IDVerse, Bridger Insight XG and Firco.
Mitek
Mobile check deposit capture, check fraud scoring and identity verification (document, selfie, liveness, deepfake detection) for banks.
Experian
Credit bureau and decisioning software vendor: Ascend analytics platform, PowerCurve decisioning, CrossCore fraud and identity checks.
Pindrop
Phone-channel fraud scoring, passive caller authentication and voice deepfake detection for bank contact centers.
BioCatch
Behavioral-biometric and device intelligence that scores digital banking sessions for account takeover, scams, mules and application fraud.
How much does Prove Identity cost?
Prove does not publish pricing. Its website has no pricing page, and production use of Pre-Fill, identity verification and authentication is sold through sales-led contracts. Since April 2025, developers can open a project and test Prove's APIs in a sandbox without talking to sales or entering a credit card, but no per-verification or plan prices are listed. Prove says Unified Authentication cut some customers' authentication costs by 50%, a vendor-reported saving rather than a price.
Which banks use Prove Identity?
Among the banks we track, Synchrony uses Prove Pre-Fill and Identity in its credit card applications; Prove says the relationship dates to 2018 and passed 25 million applications by July 2022, and Synchrony's head of authentication was quoted in a September 2026 Prove release. FNBO announced in August 2025 that it uses Pre-Fill for co-branded card onboarding. Prove says 19 of the top 20 US banks use it but does not name most of them.
Who owns Prove Identity?
Prove Identity, Inc. is privately held. Apax Digital led a $100 million round in June 2020 with Oak HC/FT, MassMutual Ventures, Synchrony and others, and MassMutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures co-led a $40 million round in October 2023. Prove did not disclose a valuation for that round; TechCrunch, citing sources close to the company, reported it above $1 billion. No sale or later round has been announced.
Is Prove the same company as Payfone?
Yes. Payfone, founded in 2008 as a mobile carrier-billing company, moved into identity verification around 2015 and renamed itself Prove on July 29, 2020. On the same day it announced the purchase of Early Warning Services' mobile authentication business, including Authentify, after a partnership with Early Warning that began in 2013. The legal name is Prove Identity, Inc.
What is Prove Pre-Fill?
Prove Pre-Fill is Prove's onboarding product. It authenticates the phone the applicant is holding, resolves the person's identity against Prove's identity graph and, with the customer's consent, returns verified details such as name, address, date of birth and Social Security number to fill in an application. Synchrony uses it for credit card applications and FNBO for co-branded card onboarding; Backbase, Temenos Exchange, Blend and Alloy offer it to their bank and credit union clients.
Is Prove Identity a bank or regulated lender?
No. Prove is a technology vendor that sells identity verification and authentication APIs to banks and other businesses. Banks that use it remain responsible for their customer identification programs, BSA/AML compliance, fair-lending and adverse-action duties, and must oversee Prove as a third party under their regulators' vendor-risk guidance.
Does Prove work with Alloy, Backbase or Temenos?
Yes. Alloy added Prove's Pre-Fill and identity checks to its platform in March 2022, Backbase embedded Pre-Fill in its banking platform in September 2025, and Pre-Fill became available on Temenos Exchange in late 2025. Blend also integrates Pre-Fill; Prove says institutions using it in Blend cut application drop-off by an average of 16% (vendor-reported).
- Prove Partners with FNBO to Modernize Onboarding Experience
- Prove Identity, Inc. Helps Synchrony Complete 25 Million Digital Credit Card Applications
- Prove Extends Silent Authentication to Wi-Fi and Mobile Web, Removing a Longstanding Limitation in Digital Identity
- Payfone raises $100M for its mobile phone-based digital verification and ID platform
- Prove Sets Standard for Modern Identity Authentication with New Brand, First Major Acquisition, and $100M Investment
- Payfone rebrands, buys authentication tech from Early Warning
- Prove to Acquire Mobile Behavioral Biometrics Company UnifyID to Accelerate Dynamic Multi-Factor Authentication
- Alloy Partners with Prove to Enhance Digital Onboarding and Reduce Risk of Fraud for Financial Institutions
- Prove Identity Secures $40 Million in Funding Led By Massmutual Ventures and Capital One Ventures
- Prove Identity nabs $40M at a $1B+ valuation to expand in mobile-based authentication tech
- Prove Debuts Self-Service ID Verification Platform
- Prove Acquires Portabl to Advance Seamless, Secure, and Interoperable Identity Networks
- Introducing the Prove Developer Portal
- Prove and Backbase Partner to Enable Faster and Safer Onboarding for Financial Institutions
- Prove Launches Verified Agent Solution to Secure the $1.7 Trillion Agentic Commerce Revolution
- Prove Pre-Fill® Now Available on Temenos Exchange, Delivering Seamless Onboarding to Banks Worldwide
- Prove Launches ProveX Digital Trust Exchange
- Prove Accelerates Global Innovation with Expansion of Ireland R&D Hub
- Prove Launches Identity Platform as the Trust Layer for an Agentic World
- Prove Appoints Industry Veteran Frances Zelazny to Bring Privacy-Preserving Biometrics to Its Identity Platform
- Turning Vision Into the Internet’s Trust Infrastructure
- Blend And Prove Cut Application Drop-Off By 16% For Banks And Credit Unions
- Identity Verification for Credit Unions: BCU Cuts Drop-Off 16% with Prove
- Prove Pre-Fill®
- Prove Unified Authentication
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