• Case Study
How Stake is Opening
Up Investment Markets,
Supported by Trulioo
Going Global
Trulioo — Case Study
The
Challenge
Global Coverage, Individual Customer Satisfaction
Since its inception, Stake has been true to its mission
of providing investors around the world with easy and
secure access to international markets beyond their
own borders, driven by real-time customer onboarding.
This mission stems from a belief that investors
should be able to diversify their investments across
geographies and industries. Being a global leader in
identity verification, Trulioo was the right match to help
Stake expand across borders with security, speed
and accuracy.
In particular, Stake set out to provide access to the U.S.
market, by far the largest stock market in the world.
Successfully opening the U.S. market to investors
in Australia and other markets, such as the United
Kingdom, was key to Stake’s growth strategy.
At the same time, one of the founding principles of
the company was to address three major legacy
issues within the investment industry for customers:
paper forms, excessive fees and poor execution.
Stake needed to undertake appropriate Anti-Money
Laundering and Know Your Customer procedures for
every customer and provide the appropriate level of
security, without compromising on service. This due
diligence needed to be done with a global partner — a
company that had the scale, expertise and ability to
deliver identity verification to such a vast market.
With the aim to go global from the start, Stake needed
an identity verification partner that could help it to
verify people around the globe, not just Australian
citizens. The Stake team needed identity verification
that provided breadth and scale, but was also flexible
to meet changing demands in what is a highly dynamic
and constantly changing sector of the economy.
“We offer an unlimited commission-free based service,
so we started testing the waters over here in Australia,
but our goal has been to go global and work with global
partners as much as we can — for example, global
brokers and foreign exchange providers, and that
includes our identity verification partner too.”
Trulioo — Case Study
The
Solution
• Dan Silver COO of Stake
“
We needed a seamless onboarding
process ... We were also looking for
a partner that has a global footprint,
that is able to scale with us as we
grow — there was only one option,
and that was Trulioo.”
Why Stake Chose Trulioo
After a thorough deliberation process, Stake chose
Trulioo as the identity verification solution that had the
breadth and scale needed to fulfill their criteria.
The partnership is still active, with the Trulioo solution
deployed to undertake verification checks when
onboarding new customers in Australia, New Zealand
and the UK.
“We needed a seamless onboarding process. One
that not only addresses the regulatory requirement,
but that also makes the process between sign-up and
trading rapid and simple. We were also looking for a
partner that has a global footprint, that is able to scale
with us as we grow — there was only one option, and
that was Trulioo.”
A determining factor for Stake choosing Trulioo was
because of its global coverage. The Trulioo identity
verification platform provides secure access to over
450 trusted data sources worldwide, so businesses
can verify more than 5 billion people and 700 million
business entities in real-time. Trulioo enables Stake’s
customers to be onboarded and instantly verified, and
in turn they can deposit funds via the app and start
trading in the U.S. stock market on the same day.
Trulioo — Case Study
“When a customer signs up, we typically capture a
large amount of information, so we can create a U.S.
brokerage account for them immediately. Of course,
this is checked against the kind of information we
need to collect, which varies from country to country,”
Silver said.
When customers are onboarding into the Stake
platform, Trulioo allows Stake to run independent
checks in a way that is secure, fast and simple, while
preventing fraud and ensuring compliance. This
all helps to build trust and confidence among its
customer base.
Stake measures and tracks a sample of automatic
verifications for each country, particularly registration
rates and fund conversion rates. The company has set
a 70–75% internal requirement for their registration
pass rate, and they benchmark that against Trulioo.
Having visibility of this data in real-time is critical as
it informs how and what actions Stake needs to take
in order to convert customers. For example, they
can offer people free stock if they fund their account
within 24 hours.
“Key for us is being digital from the get-go. Managing
conversion from registration to funding is a major
business KPI as it supports the “cost per funded
customer” metric — the lifeblood of our operation.”
70%
Stake has set a 70–75%
internal requirement for
their registration pass rate,
and they benchmark that
against Trulioo.
Trulioo — Case Study
How Trulioo Helps Stake
When measuring the business impact of ID verification
at onboarding, Stake sees a direct correlation between
smooth and rapid onboarding, real-time KYC identity
verification checks, and the likelihood that a customer
will deposit funds into their account.
“When optimal onboarding is achieved, with real-time
identity verification, customers are almost 250% more
likely to deposit funds into their Stake account. That’s
why we see identity verification as absolutely critical to
our business.”
Stake measures the success of its identity verification
processes based on the percentage of accounts that are
created through a single attempt. The ideal is for every
new customer to be able to go through the onboarding
process without being rejected due to KYC checks.
In an effort to achieve this ideal, Stake has taken steps to
improve the user experience during the account creation
process, adding a priming screen to give more details
about the onboarding process and the information
customers will need to provide. They have also divided
the process into three simple phases, so people have
visibility of where they are in the process, and added
a digital document upload function in order to make it
easier and faster to submit identity documents.
“Our customers want to know that we are regulated
and fully compliant within their market. Whilst they want
a smooth onboarding process, people also want the
reassurance and confidence that we are taking their
security seriously. We have to establish the feeling of
legitimacy around our brand as a brokerage before we
can expect people to deposit their money. That’s the
balance that we look to achieve.”
Meeting Spikes in Demand
During the first half of 2020, barely three years after its
launch, Stake saw a significant surge in demand and
usage for its platform. The number of new customers
creating accounts more than doubled between January
and April. This surge was partly due to the ongoing
momentum and growth the brand was achieving since
the middle of 2019, on the back of heightened brand
awareness in each of its key markets.
Interestingly, it was a challenging and uncertain time
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And yet, the platform
became further active with investors looking to protect
their funds and take advantage of new opportunities in
other markets. With the technology sector performing
relatively well during the crisis, Stake saw increased
interest in stocks for technology giants such as
Amazon, Microsoft, Apple and Tesla, which were
already among the most traded stocks on the platform.
Alongside this technology interest, traders had
also become acutely aware of the dramatic market
fluctuations throughout the COVID-19 crisis and looked
to exploit big changes in stock prices. Stake’s highly
sophisticated customer base has since been extremely
responsive to these market dynamics.
Trulioo has been able to meet and support this spike
in demand for identity verification checks as part of
a smooth and secure customer onboarding process.
With efforts to keep customer satisfaction high in the
face of increased demand, the team at Stake has been
focused on maintaining the stability of the platform (to
avoid any outages) while also ensuring that operational
processes are watertight.
Stake measures the success of its
identity verification processes based
on the percentage of accounts that
are created through a single attempt.
About Stake
Stake is an Australian-based investment platform
that challenges traditional banks and brokers on
investing costs and user experience. Co-founded
by Matt Leibowitz and Dan Silver, the company
was built with the aim to give savvy Australian
investors an opportunity to invest directly in some
of the world’s largest companies through a secure
yet sophisticated digital platform, without having
to pay the significant international fees charged
by the big banks and through other brokers. Stake
currently operates in Australia, New Zealand,
Brazil and the UK, with over 100,000 people active
on the platform.
The platform is particularly popular among
younger investors, with 83% of its active
customers aged 44 and under. This next
generation of investors is highly knowledgeable
about technology and digital services, and they
have high expectations around digital customer
experiences and online security. Stake customers
want a reliable, regulated and reputable partner for
their trading; however, they don’t want the need for
security and fraud to add complexity or delays to
their use of the platform.
The world’s
identity
platform.
Contact Us
Trulioo is a registered trademark of Trulioo Information Services Inc. in the United States, the European Union,
Canada and other countries.
Trulioo is the world’s identity platform, trusted
by leading companies for their verification
needs. The Trulioo integrated, automated
platform provides unparalleled global coverage
for business and person verification and a
comprehensive suite of in-house capabilities.
Combining its state-of-the-art technology with expert verification
knowledge across diverse markets, Trulioo enables the highest
verification assurance levels, optimizing onboarding costs and
fostering trust and security in the global digital economy.
Looking
Ahead
New Opportunities in New Markets, Underpinned
by Robust, Real-Time Identity Verification
While Stake sees significant opportunities for further
growth in each of its operational markets, it has
ambitious plans to expand its reach to new territories
and into new investment opportunities.
Central to this growth strategy is the company’s
continued ability to onboard customers in a safe and
speedy manner. This combines world-class customer
experience with robust security and identity verification
to protect its customers and ensure compliance with
regulations in every market. As such, Stake has no doubt
that Trulioo will continue to support and accelerate its
move into new markets.