Forter raises $32M Series C, continues battle against online fraud

Fraud prevention company Forter today announced a $32 million Series C funding led by Scale Venture Partners, with follow-on funding from Sequoia and NEA.

The company uses its Decision as a Service algorithms to help online retailers analyze their exposure to fraud at the time of check-out. It is so sure of its accuracy that it offers retailers a 100 percent guarantee against chargebacks after the fact.

Not a moment too late, either: Fraud attacks are increasing, and research from Forter claims that around 2.7 percent of all online transactions are attempts at fraud, and — perhaps more worryingly, for retailers — the vast majority of chargebacks are fraudulent, in a so-called “friendly fraud,” where customers use the chargeback system built into their credit cards instead of dealing with the merchants directly.

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Some industries are doing better, but fraud in the luxury and digital goods sectors continues to rise sharply.

The new injection of funds will be invested in the company’s mission of eliminating e-commerce fraud.

In today’s world of growing fraud attacks, we want to completely remove the fear of fraud from eCommerce and help retailers capture more sales,” said Michael Reitblat, Forter’s CEO. 

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Delivery.com, one of Forter’s customers, illustrates the power of the platform in reporting  a decrease of almost 70 percent on its chargebacks:

“We tried other fraud tools and indicators, both proprietary and third-party, that were only marginally effective and still required a lot of operational overhead,” says Colin Sims, COO of Delivery.com. “Approval rates are extremely high, decisions are instant, chargebacks are low, and most importantly, our staff has far more time to assist our customers and merchants, instead of reviewing and auditing transactions. It really is the best of all worlds for us.”

Ultimately, Forter being successful is good news all around: It’s good for the merchants, good for credit card companies and fantastic news for you, too, if you own a credit card. As long as there’s fraud, it’ll be us, the credit card users, who will be picking up the tab, and I’m whole-heartedly in favor of everything that helps make our lives just a tiny bit safer online.