BlockFrauds – a Fardoe Software Ltd business – is delighted to announce the launch of its flagship fraud detection software and expansion of its trials programme. This generation can match or eliminate voice samples, including deep fakes, with the added benefit of being passive voice authentication – meaning it is done through normal conversation without the customer having to pre-provide pass-phrases or read a script – and it works with less than one minute of speech sample. This solution can be used across many applications and currently returns a True Positive Rate of over 92%, meaning low risk of honest customers being flagged. For insurers, BlockFrauds combines it with sentiment analysis that helps detect signs of fraud through the manner of the speech or how it changes. BlockFrauds’ advanced image analytics can detect multiple use of images or their manipulation, including identity document fraud. Together these provide a Claim Credibility Score to help progress genuine claims fast whilst prioritising those needing further review. All of this can be used within a company’s own ecosystem of data and tools, or the anonymised intelligence can be seamlessly and compliantly shared in BlockFrauds’ Fraud Bureau, to better spot multiple claims and known fraudsters whilst helping the AI learn from the wider intelligence. CEO Roanna Doe said “We’re delighted to help overcome some of the key challenges faced in detecting fraud, including sharing and analysing sensitive information seamlessly without breaching regulations and doing voice matches without affecting customer service experience. Insurance fraud costs us all over $100billion each year, and we can help insurers better utilise their available information and share intelligence quickly and across borders in their fight against it, whilst retaining high customer service levels and facilitating new ways of interacting.” CTO Soadad Farhan (ex-CTO and Head of Innovation at Hiscox) said “We have combined multiple breakthrough technologies and deep-tech innovation to help insurance companies with their fight against fraud. Our unique offering is a multifaceted solution with advanced claims assessment capabilities aimed at reducing operation and fraud costs and increasing policyholder loyalty.”
BlockFrauds– a Fardoe Software business – is pleased to announce that it has joined R3’s Venture Development programme, the start-up growth and business development program of the enterprise technology and services firm, R3.
R3’s Venture Development programme has helped many successful start-ups that are building applications on Corda, known as CorDapps, to market. The program supports early-stage companies building on Corda with business development content, technical support, design workshops and community events. More than 300 high quality mentors, Venture Capital firms and Service providers contribute to the program globally.
BlockFrauds helps insurers detect fraud more efficiently and effectively in three steps. First, it helps them create an ecosystem of their chosen data and tools, so they can more easily spot issues. Then it applies a range of cutting-edge technologies, including AI and its proprietary algorithms, in advanced speech and image analytics focused on fraud detection.
The processing also anonymises the data which enables the final step: seamless, compliant sharing of the intelligence on a private blockchain with central federated learning that benefits from this wider information, giving a greater chance of spotting fraud flags as well as double-dip claims. Claims Handlers receive a Claim Credibility Score to help them prioritise their reviews, and all network participants benefit from the updated algorithm.
Roanna Doe, co-founder and CEO of Fardoe, said: “Insurance fraud is a massive issue, meaning higher premiums for customers that also mean billions of vulnerable people cannot afford them. Insurers are quite rightly subject to tight restrictions on sharing information that might nevertheless help tackle this issue. Our anonymised, compliant sharing creates a blockchain-based Fraud Bureau, with a single immutable source of truth of the speech and image intelligence that can really help to spot double-dips, new trends, known fraudsters, or worrying characteristics.”
Soadad Farhan, co-founder and CTO of Fardoe, said: “I recognised the need for this solution during my time as CTO and Head of Innovation at Hiscox. Compliance is key, and there is ongoing pressure to streamline workflows. Our automated processing, including central federated learning, helps meet both of these requirements, and use of a private permissioned blockchain ensures only trusted participants can contribute intelligence and train the model. Corda is the leading enterprise blockchain and thus an obvious choice, and we have had valuable support from the R3 community.”
BlockFrauds – as Fardoe Software – was runner-up in R3’s Corda Insurtech Challenge 2020: Fraud Detection, sponsored by B3i which is a major Europe-based insurance industry blockchain consortium. BlockFrauds is also one of just 6 companies selected for the final, pilot, phase of the European Commission-funded BlockStart programme cohort 3, aimed at increasing the use of blockchain by SMEs. On 24 February 2022, BlockFrauds will present this pilot in this programme’s final Demo Day event, “From Blockchain to Web3”.
Fardoe is also delighted also to have the support of two investors – Outlier Ventures and CV VC – and plans a third raise in early summer 2022 to support its initial scale-up.
David Vatchev , Global Head of Venture Development at R3, commented:
“R3’s ecosystem is one of the largest in the world with more than 400 institutions and over 400 startups actively engaged in building on our technology platforms. It is rapidly growing and our Venture Development program ensures startups derive the greatest value from this network to shorten their time-to-market and accelerate go-to-market strategy.”
“We are pleased to be working with Blockfrauds to support their growth journey with our network of mentors, investors and enterprise customers.”
Joao Fernandes, Coordinator of BlockStart & Investor at Bright Pixel, commented:
“It has been an absolute pleasure to support BlockFrauds in the past 6 months. The progress, both on technical and business sides, has been very impressive, moving from pre-MVP status to pilot implementations that should take this startup to the next level. Roanna and Soadad have been two of the most enthusiastic and dedicated entrepreneurs from the 60 startups who participated in BlockStart accelerator in the past 3 years. We foresee great achievements in the near future for this great project!”
Lukas Etter, Partner at CV VC, commented:
“We decided to invest into BlockFrauds due to the massive disruption potential that can be brought into the insurance sector with blockchain technology: automating processes & solutions while providing protection to sensitive personal data are just some of the benefits for the insurers and users.”
Jamie Burke, CEO of Outlier Ventures, said:
“We have advised, invested in and incubated 30+ projects over 7 years across all 3 layers of Web 3 innovation: Infrastructure, Middleware and Applications. Having condensed this learning into an accelerator program ‘Base Camp’ to support pre-seed stage startups. BlockFrauds is an exciting part of our growing portfolio and has the potential to really impact the insurance sector with its innovative use of blockchain“
BlockFrauds (Fardoe Software Ltd) is the latest Incubatee to be selected to join Batch_03 of our CV Labs Incubator.
BlockFrauds - a Fardoe Software business has been selected as one of 6 companies to progress to the final - Pilot - stage of the European Commission Blockchain Partnership Programme
Open Call 3 – 2021 / 2022
Runner-up in R3’s Corda 2020 Insurtech Challenge: Fraud Detection
Sponsored by B3i insurance industry consortium
