Riskified

Riskified
Name	Riskified
Type	Public
Industry	Fraud prevention
Founded	2012
Founders	Eido Gal, Assaf Feldman, Hilla Ovil-Brenner
Headquarters	New York City
Key people	Ofer Gneezy (CEO)
Products	E-commerce fraud prevention, chargeback guarantee, account protection

Riskified

Riskified is an e-commerce fraud prevention company that provides machine learning-based chargeback guarantees and account protection for online merchants. Founded in 2012, the firm serves retailers across retail sectors and integrates with payment platforms, gateways, and marketplaces. Riskified's services intersect with digital payments, cybersecurity, advertising technology, and logistics ecosystems involving major retailers and payment networks.

History

Riskified was founded in 2012 by entrepreneurs with experience in startups and technology ecosystems in Tel Aviv and New York City, launching during a period of rapid growth in online retail and mobile commerce exemplified by companies such as Amazon (company), eBay, Shopify, Alibaba Group and Walmart. Early funding rounds included venture investments from firms comparable to Sequoia Capital, Accel Partners, Canaan Partners and corporate investors that have backed technology scale-ups like Stripe and Adyen. Riskified expanded operations from Israel to the United States, opening offices in cities associated with finance and technology such as New York City, San Francisco, London, and later markets like Hong Kong and Singapore. The company pursued growth alongside major platform launches and industry events including partnership announcements with payment networks such as Visa, Mastercard, and marketplace integrations used by merchants listed on platforms like Etsy and BigCommerce. In 2021 Riskified completed an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange during a period when several cybersecurity and fintech firms such as CrowdStrike and PayPal pursued public listings.

Products and Services

Riskified offers products designed for online merchants, comparable in purpose to services provided by firms like Kount and Forter (company). Core offerings include fraud decisioning that can be integrated with checkout flows used by merchants on platforms like Magento and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, chargeback guarantee programs that function similarly to traditional merchant acquirers and card issuers such as JPMorgan Chase or Bank of America in dispute resolution, and account protection services for customer login flows akin to identity verification provided by firms like Okta and Auth0. Additional services address disputes, payment orchestration, and post-purchase fraud monitoring, interfacing with shipping carriers including FedEx, UPS, and DHL and logistics platforms used by merchants selling through channels like Amazon (company) and eBay.

Technology and Risk Model

Riskified’s platform is built on machine learning, behavioral analytics, and device fingerprinting strategies similar to approaches used by academic research groups at institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and Tel Aviv University. The company aggregates data from merchant transactions, order histories, browser signals, and third-party feeds comparable to data sources used by Google and Facebook (now Meta Platforms) for ad targeting. Models are trained to distinguish legitimate customers from fraudsters using supervised and unsupervised methods akin to techniques published in conferences like NeurIPS and ICML. Riskified’s risk model produces automated approvals or declines and offers a chargeback guarantee that shifts financial liability in some cases; these models are periodically updated to respond to fraud patterns observed in events such as increased card-not-present fraud spikes during holiday shopping periods influenced by global sales events like Black Friday and Singles' Day.

Business Model and Partnerships

Riskified typically charges merchants fees tied to approved orders or subscription arrangements, a structure similar to competitors in the fraud prevention industry such as Sift (company) and Signifyd. Partnerships include integrations with payment service providers like Adyen and Stripe, commerce platforms like Shopify and Magento, and collaboration with card networks Visa and Mastercard for dispute workflows. Riskified works with enterprise retailers comparable to Nike, Walmart, ASOS, and Sephora and coordinates with acquirers and issuers including First Data (now Fiserv) and Worldpay to process transactions and manage chargebacks. Business development has included channel partnerships with system integrators and consultancies such as Accenture and Deloitte to support implementation across multinational merchants.

Financial Performance and Ownership

Riskified raised venture capital from investors similar in profile to Insight Partners, Battery Ventures, and Qumra Capital prior to its public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. The public listing placed Riskified among other fintech and cybersecurity IPOs in the early 2020s, and its financial disclosures compare with peers like Forter (company) and Sift (company). Revenue streams derive from per-transaction fees, subscriptions, and value-added services; profitability metrics reflect investments in research and development, salesforce expansion, and global operations. Ownership after IPO includes institutional shareholders typical of public companies such as BlackRock, Vanguard, and various mutual fund families, while founders and early investors retained meaningful stakes through pre-IPO equity allocations.

Legal Issues and Controversies

Riskified has been involved in disputes and regulatory scrutiny similar to matters faced by technology firms operating at the intersection of payments and data protection, where cases may involve contract disagreements with merchants, inquiries relating to consumer protection statutes like those enforced by agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and data privacy frameworks comparable to the General Data Protection Regulation overseen by the European Commission. Litigation in the payments ecosystem often involves acquirers, issuers, and merchants—entities including Visa, Mastercard, and large retail chains—over chargeback liability, refund disputes, and indemnification clauses. In some jurisdictions, debates around allocation of fraud losses, compliance with sanctions administered by departments such as the U.S. Department of the Treasury and cross-border data transfers have prompted legal and policy attention affecting technology vendors in the fraud prevention sector.

Category:Financial technology companies