CertifID has announced that it has closed on its first round of financing in the amount of $1.7 million. The round was led by Grand Rapid, Mich.-based
Wakestream Ventures and included several prominent investors.
“During our diligence process we heard so many horror stories, events where people involved in real estate transactions, who, through no fault of their own, were victims of aggressive hackers, able to hack into the wire transfer process and steal hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting individuals,” said Wakestream Founder Rick DeVos. “The problem has grown into a multi-billion dollar epidemic over the last few years. CertifID not only offers a secure authentication process, but is the first and only company we are aware of that insures each and every transaction. We are very impressed with this technology and even more so with the founding team of Tom Cronkright, Lawrence Duthler and Tyler Adams, a team of seasoned entrepreneurs.”
The financing round was initiated and oversubscribed within two days.
“This round went quickly and we were overwhelmed with interest from people wanting to invest,” said Rick DeVos. “It’s rare to see a technology solution created by individuals with the level of domain expertise held by this team. This is an extremely relevant product and the go-to-market timing is perfect.”
CertifID was founded in 2017 by
Thomas Cronkright II, Lawrence Duthler, Owners and Founders of Sun Title and Tyler Adams, a digital product and branding expert. In 2015, Sun Title fell victim to a social engineering fraud that cost the company nearly $200,000. The fraud, which stemmed from an elaborate transaction scheme that took place over two months, exposed Tom and Lawrence to the level of knowledge and sophistication that cyber criminals had acquired within the real estate industry. In order to prevent future fraud events, the pair developed CertifID, a unique wire fraud prevention platform designed to safely authenticate the identities of transactional parties and share banking information securely. CertifID uses proprietary digital device analysis and knowledge-based authentication sequencing and provides a guarantee up to $500,000—an industry first.
“We were very pleased with how quickly and efficiently the Wakestream team was able to complete their diligence and pull this financing together with us. We look forward to building a highly successful company together,” said Cronkright. “We are thankful for the overwhelming confidence in the company and our team and we are excited to launch such a significant piece of technology out of Grand Rapids.”
