David Lotfi

Evina raises 20 million euros to secure financial services for telecom operators

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

 

Paris, November 18, 2021 – Paris-based cybersecurity company Evina, which operates in 70 countries, has announced a €20 million funding round to consolidate its leading position in securing financial services for telecom operators.

The future of telecom operators will not be determined by the sales strategy of cell phone plans, but by the ability to provide new services to the huge customer bases they have patiently built up. Among these, financial services are the most crucial.

The financial services offered by telecom operators today not only offer the possibility to buy digital content, mobile applications or subscriptions to major streaming platforms directly via their SIM card, but also to receive, withdraw and transfer money. The aim is both to offer a highly efficient one-click payment method with conversion rates 100 times higher than those of a bank card, and to replace and compensate for the absence of basic banking services. Especially at a time when there are more smartphones than people on earth, and 2 billion people do not have a bank account.

Today, nearly 20% of global digital content purchases go through operators. By 2021, this will be worth more than $40 billion, with double-digit annual growth. In addition, more than $2.5 trillion is flowing through operators’ e-wallets. This amount is expected to double within 5 years.

The financial services offered by operators are so successful that they have inevitably attracted organized crime from around the world. “All the criminal organizations in the world are converging on cybercrime,” warns Guillaume Poupard, the Director General of the French National Agency for Information Systems Security.

It is to face this challenge that Evina was founded in 2018 by a team of hackers, cybersecurity researchers and financial services specialists who have worked for more than 15 years in the sector they protect.

More than $1 billion saved in the last 12 months by Evina for ecosystem players

David Lotfi, CEO and founder of Evina explains how it all started: “We realized that no one knew how to stop this new generation of cybercriminals, who are extremely professional and have much more advanced technical and financial resources than before. We saw this as a major threat and decided to develop a dedicated solution. Very quickly, the largest operators around the world asked to implement our solutions.”

Evina is now present in over 70 countries. It protects the world’s largest telecom groups such as Orange and Vodacom, but also major digital merchants for whom control of operator payment is a strategic advantage. With a detection rate of 99.94% of false transactions and a false positive rate of less than 0.06%, Evina has prevented the theft of more than 1 billion euros over the last 12 months.

In recognition of its solution, Evina has received all the industry’s leading awards over the past two years, including the Global Carrier Billing Summit award for the best anti-fraud solution in 2020 and 2021 and the Juniper Award for the best financial transaction security solution in 2021.

Confidence in Evina and in the industry’s potential from US funds and historical investors

The €20 million fundraising will allow Evina to accelerate its commercial presence outside Europe, with the opening of offices abroad, and to strengthen its technical team with new talent, in order to consolidate its position as a leader in the world of financial services for telecom operators.

The round was led by New York-based Radian Capital with the support of Evina’s historical investors including 50 partners, Saas Partners and Id4VC.

“Telecom Operators are in a very strong position to offer the next generation of financial service products. And while they currently possess much of what they need – embedded customer base, access to phones, known identities, financial performance, and bank account credentials – these operators still lack the security capabilities necessary to fight the most sophisticated fraud attempts. This is why we are so excited to back the team at Evina. They bring ‘bank security’ capabilities to these Telcos that allows them to operate in 2021 and beyond.” enthused Jordan Bettman, founder of Radian Capital.

Learn more about Evina at: https://www.evina.com/

Direct Carrier Billing Index reveals the most favourable countries for DCB growth in the MEA region

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

The first DCB Index developed by Evina and Telecoming is released today

  • Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar are the most attractive markets for DCB, leading the index
  • The innovative tool measures the maturity of this mobile payment method in 18 countries
  • The development of the DCB Index is one of the commitments established in the alliance signed earlier this year by both companies

Analysts from Evina, experts in DCB protection, and Telecoming, experts in DCB implementation, have developed the first Direct Carrier Billing (DCB) Index. This rating aims to provide market players with a comprehensive overview of the current state of the DCB business and its overall potential.

Bahrain, Egypt, and Qatar lead the list according to the results of the first DCB Index created to measure the development of this market in MEA. The innovative tool[1] uses 4 KPIs focused on Fraud Protection, Mobile Payments Innovation, DCB Penetration levels, and DCB Growth Potential.

As a result, the DCB Index establishes a ranking based on the score achieved by each country. It is presented on a scale from 1 to 5, with 1 as the lowest indicator and 5 being the most advanced pointer.

Download the full DCB Index here: https://www.evina.com/resources/dcb-index-evina-telecoming/

According to the analysis, Bahrain (3,7) stands out for its extensive DCB protection against fraud. The country shows full support for DCB, seeing that all local mobile operators have implemented this payment technology, yet innovation remains a weak point to develop.

Local mobile operators and merchants are working together to promote DCB as an effective payment method in Egypt (3,3). It’s a true breeding ground for the development of DCB, and efforts must continue to strengthen DCB protection to realize its full potential. Forward-thinking MNOs have enabled in-app purchases in Qatar (3,2). Its overall innovative approach to mobile payments, such as paying employees via mobile money, demonstrates the country’s predisposition to implement new uses of DCB.

According to the index, mobile payment partnerships centred around DCB are growing in Kenya, while Morocco shows ample room for growth in DCB Innovation.

South Africa has a high DCB uptake but has had to deal with fraudulent mobile payment attempts. Hence, increased protection is vital for the sustainable development of DCB as an easy and reliable payment method in the region.

According to Roberto Monge, COO of Telecoming, “DCB has been gaining presence in the region’s digital economy. This innovative indicator shows that many countries are on the right track. Technology is already in place, but there are still some challenges to face. All the payments tech industry players need to work together to develop a new, reliable, secure and stable mobile economy that benefits the whole market “, says Monge.

David Lotfi, Founder & CEO of Evina, states, “the DCB Index indicates that fraud on DCB remains as a top barrier to countries maximizing the potential of direct carrier billing.” Lotfi adds, “these findings strongly suggest that anti-fraud measures need to be more extensively and consistently implemented so that DCB becomes not only a widely used effortless payment method but a source of greater revenue for mobile players.”

 

[1] The figures provided are algorithmic-based estimations calculated from Evina sensors and Telecoming intelligence data. The DCB Index is intended for information purposes only.

 

Vodacom and Evina unite to fight mobile fraud

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Vodacom, SA’s leading network has taken a major step forward in mobile user safety by partnering with cybersecurity for mobile payments company, Evina.

Mobile users in Africa’s most advanced economy will now join the ranks of the tens of millions of consumers globally that are protected daily by Evina’s payments technology.

In recent years, the South African mobile industry has attracted a large number of fraudsters leading to a substantial increase in user complaint rates. These frequent fraudulent attacks are due to the fact that a large number of the African population uses a cellular phone, especially as a mobile payment method. Fraudsters are never far from where mobile transactions are. In South Africa alone, the country fraud rate recorded by Evina’s fraud sensors was 23.53% with clickjacking being the most fraudulent technique used to defraud mobile users in the first quarter of 2021. This region is a playground for new and extremely sophisticated fraud techniques that are difficult to spot unless using advanced technology

In this context, Vodacom has partnered with Evina to secure mobile transactions via Evina’s set of anti-fraud solutions that include DCBprotect and Eyewitness. DCBprotect detects bots that attempt to make fraudulent transactions whereas Eyewitness records fraudulent behaviour on payment pages to give proof to Vodacom’s partners of any bot-related activity.

Evina offers the most advanced cybersecurity technology for mobile payments and currently blocks over 16 million transactions in more than 70 countries worldwide. Evina is a recognized player in the mobile ecosystem and has been awarded various prestigious accolades such as the Best Financial Clearing Solution from Juniper Research and Best Carrier Billing Fraud Solution at the Global Carrier Billing Summit 2020.

David Lotfi, CEO & Founder of Evina: “We strive to work with mobile players that share our vision of fraud being a serious issue that needs to be dealt with – and soon. By integrating our anti-fraud solution into its operations, Vodacom with its large African network of mobile users, has confirmed that it too shares our values and wishes to create a fraud-free mobile payment ecosystem. This makes deploying the best technology worldwide, for the protection of South African mobile users, effortless.”

“The protection of our customers against all forms of fraudulent activity is our top priority. We are constantly striving to eradicate any potential mobile fraud on our network by updating and enhancing our controls to give customers peace of mind whilst enjoying seamless connectivity through their mobile phones. Introducing DCBprotect as solution is testament to our efforts to stay ahead of fraudsters and create a fraud free digital environment. We believe that early detection and blocking of any form of criminality on our network is in the interest of our customers and ultimately the Vodacom brand” said Mariam Cassim Chief Officer of Vodacom Financial and Digital Services.

Juniper Research recognizes Evina as the gold winner in Security and Fraud Innovation

Posted on by Andrea Putnam-Moorcroft

Evina, the leading specialist in cybersecurity for mobile payment has received the gold award in the Security and Fraud Innovation category at The Future Digital Awards by Juniper Research, the top analyst firm in the mobile and digital tech sector.

This award is the result of Evina’s cutting-edge technology – above all industry standards – that allows mobile network operators, payment gateways, and merchants to fend off fraud and increase their revenue while doing so.

This recognition highlights the crucial role Evina’s cutting-edge technology plays in securing markets. David Lotfi, CEO of Evina says “At Evina, our mission isn’t to only stop fraud, we strive to create a healthier ecosystem that unlocks more efficient payment flows and new business opportunities for all market players.”

Evina’s gold win shines a light on what the future of cybersecurity holds. The anti-fraud market can no longer function without high-tech tools that know how to differentiate between bots or humans.

Evina has dedicated more than 15 years to develop the most advanced cybersecurity technology for mobile payment. Evina offers an ultrahigh definition 3D footprint that captures online fraudulent behaviour, edge computing that treats and stores data closest to the end user, and a global money honeypot network in more than 70 countries that attracts fraudsters and reverse-engineers their mechanisms. The innovation doesn’t stop there. The Cyber Threat Intelligence analyzes threats coming from all sources, including the dark web, and the machine learning is continuously fed with over 16 million transactions analyzed every day.

The cutting-edge technology allows to detect 99.8% of fraudulent transactions, decrease complaint rates, and increase the number of legitimate transactions. Evina’s passionate team of engineers and extensive database are what make the cybersecurity firm the best anti-fraud tool on the market. This award demonstrates that Evina has become a major international player, alongside long-standing Juniper award winners such Microsoft, Paypal, and Amazon, in the cybersecurity anti-fraud realm.