Payment services provider PayPal has agreed to acquire US-based fraud detection software developer and portfolio company Simility for $120m in cash.
Simility’s software, the Adaptive Decisioning Platform, detects and prevents fraudulent transactions in real time by combining artificial intelligence and big data analytics. It can also be manually fine-tuned for specific scenarios.
PayPal will integrate the technology into its own offering, giving merchants on its service access to the platform through their existing account management dashboard.
Simility had raised $25m in funding, including $17.5m in a December 2017 round that was led by venture capital firm Accel and backed by PayPal, Trinity Ventures, Array Ventures and Valley Fund.
The latter three had previously injected $1.5m in Simility in 2016. Accel led a $3.5m round for the company in August 2015, before Trinity Ventures and a range of angel investors added $2.3m in October the same year.
Bill Ready, PayPal’s chief operating officer, said: “Digital commerce has exploded, and fraudsters have taken note, adapting and developing new methods to carry out their crimes.
“PayPal has been at the forefront of developing innovative fraud prevention and risk management solutions for nearly 20 years, and now merchants will be able to configure those solutions to manage the unique complexities of their businesses.”