Prelude Secures €17.2 Million Series A Funding to Enhance Onboarding and Trust Infrastructure
Prelude, a Paris-based platform specializing in onboarding and trust infrastructure, has successfully raised €17.2 million ($20 million) in a Series A funding round. This significant investment aims to fuel the company’s mission to verify and protect users throughout their digital journey.
Funding and Key Investors
The funding round was spearheaded by 20VC, with notable contributions from Singular, Seedcamp, Deel, and FDJ Ventures. Additionally, a group of influential angel investors participated, including Steffen Tjerrild (COO and co-founder, Synthesia), Willem Delbare (co-founder, Aikido Security), Antoine Le Nel (Global CGO and CMO, Revolut), Felix Blossier (Pennylane co-founder), George Arison (CEO, Grindr), Barney Hussey-Yeo (founder and CEO, Cleo), and Will Wu (former CTO, Match Group).
Innovative Solutions to Fraud and Verification Challenges
Paul Bonnet, General Partner of 20VC, emphasized the unique benefits Prelude offers, stating, “Most companies that do phone verification get scammed: fraud at the pump, opaque prices, non-existent customer support. Prelude is the only platform that solves all three of these problems at once: their customers reduce verification costs by over 40%, convert more users, and get a response when something goes wrong. Matias and Quentin solved this problem at Zenly, then built it for everyone. We’re also excited about the launch of their Auth product.”
Founded in 2023 by Matias Berny and Quentin Le Bras, Prelude leverages telecom data, behavioral signals, and machine learning to make continuous trust decisions. This approach not only improves user conversion rates but also effectively reduces fraud.
Addressing the Hidden Costs of Broken Onboarding
The company highlights the often-overlooked costs associated with inefficient onboarding processes, such as inflated SMS bills due to fraud, users abandoning OTP screens, and unchecked fraud leading to significant damage. Prelude criticizes legacy providers for their exorbitant rates, outdated dashboards, and limited customer support.
Comprehensive Solution Stack
To tackle these challenges, Prelude has integrated a variety of previously disjointed tools, including a verification provider, a fraud provider, an identity layer, and a device SDK. This comprehensive approach enables businesses to save an average of 40% on verification costs while boosting conversion rates.
Next-Gen Products and Future Plans
Mathias Berny, Co-founder and CEO of Prelude, noted the limitations of traditional methods, stating, “The old playbook is broken. CAPTCHAs no longer stop bots, and a single fraud signal won’t tell you who’s really there. Using a fake is now a business intelligence problem, not a box to check. Telephone numbers are becoming the strongest anchor we have, and with the Intel API, they carry more confidence that any password or one-time code never has.”
Prelude’s platform synthesizes telecommunications data, device intelligence, network signals, and behavioral models into a unified trust profile for each user, facilitating a shift from one-time checks to ongoing trust decisions.
Product Launches: Auth API and Intel API
The company is launching two groundbreaking products: the Auth API, which enables continuous trust checks throughout the user lifecycle, and the Intel API, which provides real-time carrier information directly in onboarding flows. These innovations, coupled with Prelude’s Verify API and front-end SDKs, enhance the reliability of user verification processes.
Expanding Global Reach and Capabilities
Quentin Le Bras, Co-founder and CTO of Prelude, explained the evolving nature of digital verification, stating, “Previously, the question was ‘is this a valid phone number?’ The question now is: ‘Is this a legitimate user, on every touchpoint?’ Bots are indistinguishable from humans on the surface, synthetic identities pass basic checks, and AI agents take real actions on behalf of real users. No signal can anymore answer this question. The companies that benefit from integration will be those that view trust as a continuous infrastructure, not a single door.”
Prelude reports a sixfold increase in revenue and customer base over the past year, working with major companies, including one of the world’s largest social media platforms, Suno, BeReal, Sunday, and Voodoo.
This latest funding will enable Prelude to transition from phone verification to a comprehensive trusted platform for digital onboarding. The company aims to expand direct telecom partnerships globally, enhance Intel API coverage in Europe and beyond, further invest in machine learning systems, and grow its teams across engineering, infrastructure, and commercialization.
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