Nigeria-based Union Systems is the latest company to team up with global biometric identity technology innovator Daon. The African fintech will help bring Daon’s “two-in-one,” cross-channel authentication and digital onboarding technology to financial institutions across the African continent.

“This partnership with Daon puts us at the forefront of the efforts by the regulatory authorities to combat financial crimes,” Union Systems CEO Chuks Onyebuchi said. “Daon’s technology is cutting-edge, and will redefine authentication and digital onboarding as we know it.”

Daon’s IdentityX platform enables new users to leverage credentials established during the onboarding process for ongoing authentication. This “two-in-one” approach removes friction and accelerates time to revenue by activating customers faster. The platform provides the highest level of security via mobile, web, and call center authentication, and is FIDO certified.

“Working collaboratively with Union Systems Limited, we will make our leading identity technology available to an ever-growing wave of African innovators, particularly those in financial services who want to reach more customers and differentiate themselves with a secure and seamless experience,” Daon CEO Tom Grissen said. “We are excited to bring our authentication and digital onboarding capabilities to Union Systems customers and expand our product offering throughout the African market.”

Daon demonstrated its universal mobile biometric authentication platform at FinovateFall 2016. The solution leverages device binding, geolocation, liveness detection, and other technologies to provide a seamless, inherently multi-factor, authentication experience. Earlier this year, Daon unveiled a suite of new features for its onboarding solution, including browser-based onboarding, third-party identity checks, automated decisioning, and optional human review.

Last month, Daon announced that John Sanders, co-founder of Reveal Imaging Technologies (acquired by SAIC), would join the company as President of Emerging Markets. Sanders will be tasked with helping lead the company through its next phase of growth into new verticals, and will also be a member of Daon’s board of directors.

The Reston, Virginia-based company announced a pair of partnerships over the summer. In July, Daon collaborated with digital onboarding and anti-fraud specialist CTMS in a partnership that will make Daon’s biometric security technology available to FIs and businesses in France. The same month, Daon and North African technology firm GEMADEC announced they had successfully set up a mobile application for the Moroccan Interprofessional Pension Fund (CIMR). The app uses facial recognition as part of a life certificate digitalization that establishes proof-of-life.

Browser-based onboarding, third-party identity checks, automated decisioning, and optional human review are among the top-level, new features of Daon’s IdentityX Digital Onboarding 2.0. The updated platform, launched this week, enables companies to offer a frictionless and fraud-resistant onboarding experience for their customers, reducing abandonment rates and operating costs while ensuring KYC/AML compliance.

Decrying what he called the “false choice between convenience and compliance,” Daon CEO Tom Grissen highlighted the new platform’s “two-in-one” approach that enables users to leverage their onboarding credentials to authenticate across both digital and physical channels. “Daon’s unprecedented integration of onboarding and authentication is a powerful new realization of our longstanding commitment to a frictionless, omni-channel experience at every step of the customer journey,” he said.

Reston, Virginia-based Daon demonstrated its IdentityX platform at FinovateFall 2016. The technology leverages biometric inputs such as face, voice, and fingerprint, as well as other authentication strategies such as device binding, geolocation, and liveness detection to provide an “inherently multi-factor,” future-proof authentication option for banks, payment processors, and other businesses.

With the launch of 2.0, Daon adds the ability to onboard users online instead of relying on the mobile app, and the capacity for businesses to achieve a higher or more specific degree of authentication by connecting to third party identity verification solutions. The new features give users the option to configure decision, action, and review paths, and features an optional human review process to examine challenging or questionable applications more effectively.

“For too long, organizations have been stuck choosing 90% customer abandonment rates on the one hand, or billions of dollars lost to fraud and regulatory fines on the other,” Grissen said. “Today, with all-digital customer onboarding from Daon, the process isn’t just more frictionless than traditional onboarding; it’s also more secure.”

Founded in 2000, Daon made fintech headlines earlier this month with news that it would bring its biometric identity technology to digital onboarding and anti-fraud company CTMS. Also in July, Daon announced that it had partnered with GEMADEC to build a life certificate digitization solution for the Moroccan Interprofessional Pension Fund’s (CIMR) mobile app.

Biometric solutions company Daon is leveraging its partnership with North African technology company GEMADEC to help create a life certificate digitalization solution for the Moroccan Interprofessional Pension Fund’s (CIMR’s) mobile app.

Leveraging Daon’s IdentityX platform the mobile app, CIMR DIALCOM, provides CIMR with the client’s proof of life. The app prompts the user to take a dynamic selfie that certifies not only identity but also liveness by having the user complete a series of “life challenges” such as eye blinks and head movements.

To complete authentication, the app compares the selfie with a picture on the user’s photo ID. After the user is authenticated and is confirmed living, the app authorizes their pension payment.

Daon most recently presented its authentication technology at FinovateFall 2016. The company offers verification technology that uses a range of biometrics, including fingerprint, face, voice, iris, keystroke, palm, or a combination. Founded in 2002, Daon is headquartered in Reston, Virginia. Tom Grissen is CEO.