Online Identity Platform Yofi Launches

US entrepreneurs Alex Shamir, Jordan Shamir and Andrew Stetsenko have launched a platform called Yofi, to help brands and retailers understand their 'actual' customers, their motivations, and the best way to interact with them. The team has raised $1.5m in a pre-seed round of funding.

San Francisco-based Yofi, formerly known as BotNot, is able to pinpoint and remove bots, fraudsters and duplicate accounts from digital purchasing behavior data, to enable brands to understand the number and identity of their genuine customers. The firm has developed more than 160 features through which its machine learning can identify different patterns of digital retail behavior, and then identify 'bad actors'.

Alex Shamir (pictured) explains: 'We recognized how bots, bad actors and fraudsters' dominance in the online retail market is completely skewing brand data. We also realized that in today's online marketplace, everyday consumers are using multiple e-mail addresses or signing up to engage with brands in a number of ways. We are thrilled to be able to help brands get smarter and clearer on who their customers are, and then provide the best solutions for these brands to help them reach their business goal'.

The firm's pre-seed funding round was led by a Kickstart Fund, with participation from the Data Tech Fund, Signal Peak Ventures, Rocky Point Ventures, BBQ Capital, and other angel investors.

Web site: www.yofi.ai .