Who Persona is
Persona is an identity verification company founded in 2018 and based in San Francisco. It verifies people with government IDs, selfies and database checks, runs watchlist and PEP reports, and verifies businesses and the people behind them.
Every check runs from an inquiry template, configured in Persona's dashboard down to the screens, the verifications and the decisions. Its reach across people and companies is why it is one of the providers our KYC / AML and merchant onboarding modules connect to.
What it does in your platform
KYC / AML
Verifies customers at sign-up through the inquiry template you choose: a government ID, a selfie and, where your licence asks for it, watchlist and PEP reports. Inquiries that need a person land in the module's review queue.
Merchant onboarding
Verifies business customers: Persona runs business reports on the company and verifies its owners and directors, so a merchant is approved in the same flow they apply in.
How the connection works
The modules talk to Persona's API, and the customer completes Persona's flow in your app or on the web. Persona's keys stay in your platform's secrets; your app only receives an inquiry ID, plus a session token when an inquiry is resumed.
An inquiry is created
When a customer signs up, the module creates an inquiry from your template, prefilled with what the customer already gave you, as Persona recommends for production.
The flow opens
The customer completes Persona's flow for that inquiry. Persona offers it for web pages, native iOS and Android apps, React Native and mobile web views.
Checks run
Persona runs the verifications the template includes, such as the government ID and the selfie, and any reports, such as watchlist and PEP screening.
A signed webhook
Events such as a completed inquiry reach the module signed with your webhook secret and a timestamp, and the module verifies each one before acting on it.
The decision
Clear inquiries open the account; anything that needs a person goes to your team's review queue in the backoffice, with Persona's results attached.
Businesses too
For a merchant, the module sends the company and its owners to Persona, which runs the business reports and verifies each owner. The result reaches your underwriters.
Next to other providers
Persona can work next to other providers in both modules: in KYC / AML, routed by country or risk with a fallback if one is down, and in merchant onboarding, next to company data from official registries and data providers.
The screens, the review queue and the underwriting queue belong to the modules. Adding a provider next to Persona, or leaving it later, does not change your apps, and past results stay linked to the provider that made them.
When Persona fits best
A strong fit when
- You verify both people and businesses, and want one provider for both.
- Your compliance team wants to configure each flow itself, from the screens to the decisions.
- You want watchlist and PEP reports tied to the same inquiry as the ID check.
Also worth a look
- A registry data provider such as Kyckr or OpenCorporates, for company data straight from official registers.
- A provider with deeper document coverage in one market, routed next to Persona for those customers.
How we get you live
The contract
We help you get your Persona account and contract in place, for KYC, KYB or both, set up for your markets and your licence.
The templates
We set up the inquiry templates with you: which documents, which reports and which decisions apply to which customers and businesses.
The keys
The API key and the webhook secret go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else, so every event is proven to come from Persona.
A full test run
The whole flow runs in Persona's sandbox, where passes and fails can be forced to try every path, before your first real customer.
