Credit report provider Equifax has agreed to acquire Midigator, a provider of post-transaction fraud mitigation solutions, to boost its digital identity and fraud prevention credentials.
It is the company’s 12th acquisition since the beginning of 2021, part of a strategy to reinvest its free cash flow in strategic bolt-on acquisitions.
Global e-commerce sales are expected to reach $5.5trillion in 2022 with digital payments expected to grow from 2.6 billion users in 2020 to over 4.4 billion in 2025. With increasing transaction disputes and surging chargebacks, Equifax says Midigator’s automated, data-driven chargeback prevention and dispute management tools will complement its data network of fraud and trust-related signals.
The Equifax Kount Identity Trust Global Network uses artificial intelligence to link trust and fraud data signals from 32 billion digital interactions, 17 billion devices and five billion annual transactions across 200 countries and territories.
Mark W. Begor, CEO of Equifax, says: “We’re energised to expand our identity and fraud capabilities with the acquisition of Midigator. The New Equifax is much more than a credit bureau. Midigator expands our robust differentiated data assets and Kount acquisition in 2021 to bring global businesses the information and solutions they need to better manage fraud across the complete customer lifecycle.”
“With our Equifax Cloud driven data and analytics capabilities, and the powerful combination of Midigator and our Kount Identity & Fraud solutions, Equifax is poised to capitalise on new revenue streams and relationships, broadening our digital identity footprint in a fast growing space.
Midigator’s chargeback success
Founded in 2013, Midigator offers a technology platform that automates the dispute response process and provides real-time data to businesses on why chargebacks are occurring in the first place. It boasts preventing more than 2.7 million chargebacks.
“Midigator was founded by e-commerce merchants to solve friendly fraud challenges,” says Corey Baggett, founder and CEO of Midigator. “Over the last decade, companies ranging from startups to established brands have used Midigator for intelligent chargeback responses, in-depth analytics, real-time account reporting and dispute processes.”
“Our solutions are grounded in a strong foundation of data analysis and we’re excited for the new opportunities and product innovation that will come from having our offerings combined with the expansive set of Equifax data, analytics and products.”
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2022. Following completion, Midigator will become part of the Equifax USIS business unit.
