← State of Embedded Finance 2026

Unico

Can a Brazilian facial-biometrics identity network become the global authentication layer for high-risk transactions in the GenAI/deepfake era?

Founded2007
HQSão Paulo, Brazil
Latest roundSeries D, $100M
IndustryInfrastructure / Identity
The story

Founded 2007 in Brazil as Acesso Digital, originally a document-digitalization business (SafeDoc) for banks and enterprises. Pivoted around 2016 from document management to facial-biometric identity verification, rebranding as Unico. Now positions as the largest identity-validation network in Latin America with 1.2B+ checks per year, expanding into transaction-time use cases like IDPay (binding facial biometrics to credit-card and PIX payments) — a deliberate move from KYC vendor toward embedded payment authentication.

Last 12 months
Product timeline
0
Launched Unico IDPay combining identity verification with credit card ownership validation.· pivot
2007
Founded as Acesso Digital, launched SafeDoc for document digitalization in financial/enterprise sectors.· pivot
2016
Pivoted from document management to digital identity verification via facial biometrics.· pivot
2019
Rebranded as Unico and expanded IDCloud identity verification platform.· pivot
The stack
Payments / PSP
Unico IDPay (self-operated)
Accounting gap: none