Stellenbosch-based financial authentication company Entersekt has acquired the Modirum 3-D Secure software business from Modirum, a digital payment security provider based in Estonia, for an undisclosed sum.

Modirum is a “leader in enabling authenticated, card-not-present payments”. Its cloud-based 3-D Secure (3DS) technologies and services authenticate digital payment transactions globally in numerous payment systems for hundreds of issuers and thousands of merchants, as well as enabling 3DS transactions for hundreds of millions of cardholders.

With the acquisition, Entersekt will expand its customer base and will secure more than 2.5 billion transactions per year, giving it a global footprint and a clear technology advantage of a solution spanning across digital, payment and data channels of issuers, acquirers and merchants.

“Financial institutions are fighting to stay ahead of fraud threats, and are dependent on disparate, siloed authentication tools used for various banking channels – resulting in inconsistent user experiences and vulnerabilities in their fraud prevention strategies,” said Datos Insights chief insights officer Julie Conroy in a statement on the deal.

“The combination of Entersekt’s authentication capabilities with Modirum’s 3DS products promises to provide consumers with a consistent, cross-channel user experience and powerful protection against the latest fraud schemes.”

“The combined capabilities of Entersekt and Modirum will allow us to offer a wider set of solutions and provide our customers with more data sources to use when protecting against fraud,” said Entersekt co-founder and CEO Schalk Nolte.

Transaction authentication

“At the same time, we are expanding the types of markets and customers we can serve, enabling us to scale globally and grow faster.”

Entersekt will add Modirum’s 3DS solutions to its Entersekt secure platform for transaction authentication, and the 3DS team will join the company. The acquisition accelerates product development, expands Entersekt’s existing product offering, and bolsters its ability to scale and support customers around the world, it said.

Modirum also brings an impressive list of customers that increases Entersekt’s market share of financial institutions offering 3DS.