E-commerce fraud prevention startup Forter raises $300M

Dive Brief:

Forter, an e-commerce fraud prevention company, raised $300 million in Series F funding, the company announced on Tuesday. The funding comes six months after the company raised $125 million in a Series E round.
With this most recent funding round, the company is now valued at $3 billion. The company said it would use the capital to expand its global ecosystem and to improve the shopping experience throughout the consumer journey.
Tiger Global Management led the Series F funding round, while Third Point Ventures, Adage Capital Management and multiple current investors were also part of the round.

Dive Insight:

Forter attributed its recent growth to the rise in e-commerce spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the company's product innovation and new partnerships with various banking, payments and e-commerce companies. The startup noted in its announcement that over the past 12 months, it doubled its global merchant network to more than $250 billion in annual online transactions.

During that same time, the company grew its revenue by more than 100% and landed partnerships with companies like Farfetch, Asos and Shein.

John Curtius, a partner at Tiger Global Management, noted in the announcement that Forter was "the leader in performance and scale" in comparison to other companies in the e-commerce fraud prevention field.

"Forter's platform brings together merchants, banks and payment providers to dramatically improve authorization rates, eliminate false declines and allow consumers to shop with greater convenience and enjoy a more personalized, secure experience," Michael Reitblat, CEO and co-founder of Forter, said in a statement. "The funding will enable us to accelerate our growth trajectory by investing in talent, technology and continued global expansion."

Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused in-store shopping concerns more than a year ago, the increase in e-commerce spending appears to be going strong, but with that growth comes the rise in online fraud. According to Adobe's Digital Economy Index report in March this year, the pandemic catalyzed consumers to spend $183 billion more online since March 2020. A Juniper Research report indicated that online retailers could lose more than $20 billion in 2021 to e-commerce fraud crimes, including identity theft, chargeback fraud and account takeovers.