Prelude SMS verification solutions has secured seed funding to expand its fraud prevention and cost-effective verification solutions across Europe and North America.
Prelude, a Paris-based company specialising in SMS verification solutions, has announced an $8M seed funding round led by Singular and Seedcamp. Founded by former Zenly team members Matias Berny and Quentin Le Bras, Prelude aims to address the costly and often opaque nature of SMS verification processes. The funding will drive Prelude’s expansion across Europe and North America, focusing on customer acquisition and enhancing its platform with new mobile-first onboarding services.
The demand for effective SMS verification is high, especially given the challenges faced by global companies that must ensure secure and cost-effective messaging. Prelude’s founders witnessed these issues firsthand at Zenly, where SMS verification was a significant operational expense, with up to 30% of the budget lost to fraud. Seeing no efficient solution on the market, Prelude was born to bring transparency and efficiency to SMS verification by using a “smart broker” model, which connects businesses with mobile networks through cost-effective routing.
Smart routing for SMS verification solutions
Like how Skyscanner finds cost-effective flight options, Prelude’s technology identifies optimal message routes for clients, resulting in reduced verification costs and a higher conversion rate. Currently, the company claims its clients experience up to a 40% reduction in costs and a 95% conversion rate, ensuring consistent delivery to the desired recipient. CEO Matias Berny expressed Prelude’s ambitious approach, saying, “We’re determined to tackle SMS fraud at its core and use our experience to go beyond SMS verification. Onboarding conversion is one of the toughest challenges in driving growth, and that’s the problem we aim to solve for our customers. We’re building new services to help them master user onboarding, trust, and retention.”
Henri Tilloy, Partner at Singular, praised Prelude’s developer-friendly solution, stating, “Prelude is transforming the phone verification and authentication space. Its practical solution offers a great developer experience, delivering immediate and tangible value by helping businesses cut costs, enhance fraud protection and improve conversation rates – all with just a single line of code. Prelude is the ideal entry point for consumer businesses seeking to streamline verification processes, and from there, allows them to consolidate many aspects of application-to-person messaging or authentication flows.”
Expanding a global reach in SMS verification
Since its inception in 2022, Prelude has safeguarded over 100 million user accounts across 230 regions and is expanding to meet the needs of diverse industries, including finance, travel, retail, and social services.
Partnered with companies like BeReal, Locket, and Bitstack, Prelude is well-positioned to capture a significant share of the global verification market. Sunday, a global payment solution for restaurants, is one of its satisfied clients. Sunday CTO Arnaud Lemaire noted, “Operating across Europe and North America with international customers, we needed a solution that could keep up with our global reach while maintaining competitive prices – our previous provider fell short. With Prelude, we’ve completely transformed our messaging strategy. Now, we send OTPs worldwide effortlessly, with full visibility into deliverability and conversion rates. Plus, their responsive support team is always ready to help, ensuring we stay on track. Prelude has truly helped us elevate our B2C engagement.”
Prelude’s new funding will not only support its growth but also fuel the expansion of its platform to become a leader in mobile-first onboarding. The company is working to introduce a suite of APIs that extend beyond SMS verification, helping businesses verify, onboard, and retain users more effectively.
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