E-commerce fraud prevention startup Forter raises $300M

Dive Brief:

Forter, an e-commerce fraud prevention company, recently raised $300 million in funding, the company announced on Tuesday. The funding comes six months after the company raised $125 million in a prior round.
With this most recent funding round, Forter is now valued at $3 billion. The New York-based company said it would use the capital to expand its global ecosystem and to improve the consumer shopping experience.
Mega investment firm Tiger Global Management led the recent funding round, while Third Point Ventures, Adage Capital Management and multiple current investors also chipped in.

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 more than doubled its revenue and landed partnerships with clothing and accessory retailers 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," Forter CEO And Co-founder Michael Reitblat said in a statement. "The funding will enable us to accelerate our growth trajectory by investing in talent, technology and continued global expansion."

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, consumers stayed home, saved money and veered away from in-store shopping, leading to an increase in e-commerce spending, alongside a rise in online fraud. According to Adobe's Digital Economy Index report in March this year, the pandemic led 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.