countries of origin that hoolah customers belong to
to verify a hoolah customer
The challenge
hoolah is on a mission to empower merchants and consumers through responsible affordability. They’re achieving this today through their online buy-now-pay-later platform - enabling customers to purchase goods from their favorite retailers through affordable installments.
Founded in 2018 in Singapore, hoolah has seen rapid growth, fueled by their human approach. Weaved into their customer experience and merchant partnerships, hoolah builds relationships and positive interactions into their product. It’s this approach that keeps merchants excited to work with them, and that drives rave customer reviews.
As a financial service regulated in Singapore, hoolah must verify customer identities for AML and KYC purposes. And as they expand internationally, they need to ensure that these processes hold up to scrutiny with local regulators. Knowing their customer also enables hoolah to de-risk their product, only offering BNPL services to real people, and not fraudsters who present a financial and reputational risk.
But for hoolah, it’s not enough to just ‘tick’ regulatory boxes. They want identity verification to feel as seamless as making a purchase. In the same way that a customer can swipe and pay at a till quickly and securely, they should be able to verify their identity in the same way.
The solution
hoolah wanted a partner who could help them seamlessly verify customers with confidence, to help them get customers on board and using their platform. That’s where Onfido came in.
When a customer opens an account on mobile or desktop, they go through the usual hoolah sign-up process. They verify their identity only once they are about to make their first purchase - with Onfido, that’s as simple as a quick photo of their ID and Selfie Video using their smartphone. Decoupling the sign-up and identity verification processes in this way gives customers real value before they’re asked for additional information, improving conversion rates.
Jason Van, Chief Technology Officer, hoolah
The results
It was essential for hoolah to verify customers in a compliant and accurate manner. But hoolah wanted to achieve this with an approach that set them apart in the buy-now-pay-later market — with a human approach.
With Onfido, hoolah is more confident that they can scale their business internationally without having to constantly reinvent their compliance processes. In Singapore for example, hoolah leverages electronic ID to verify new customers. But as hoolah expands into new regions without eID schemes, Onfido’s global document support — covering 195 countries — provides them with a unified and consistent approach to knowing their customers.
hoolah can now make fast and confident decisions on whether or not to allow someone into their platform, digitally verifying customer identities in just three minutes. Onfido returns a quick “clear” or “consider” to hoolah, so they can make a decision. Fast. When a customer is identified as suspicious, Onfido provides detailed information on what about that customer was suspicious — from tampered documents through to data mismatches. So the hoolah team is enabled for an informed follow-up.
Fundamentally, hoolah and Onfido share a belief in building human experiences. Throughout the integration, the Onfido team was on-hand to provide UX and fraud performance benchmarks, sharing best practices on building an identity verification experience that converts at scale. What’s next for hoolah? Already operating in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, hoolah is expanding in 2021 to Thailand, the Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Indonesia and Vietnam. Find out more at hoolah.co.
About hoolah
hoolah is Asia’s leading omnichannel, buy-now-pay-later ecosystem. Founded in Singapore 2018, hoolah is serving both merchants and customers alike. For merchants, hoolah drives customer growth through conversion and basket size. For customers, hoolah offers a responsible, affordable way to purchase from leading retailers.
