When was Cognito founded?

Cognito was founded in 2013 and raised its 1st funding round 1 year after it was founded.

Where is Cognito located?

Cognito is headquartered in San Francisco, United States. It is registered at Walnut, California.

How many employees does Cognito have?

As of Aug 31, 2026, the latest employee count at Cognito is 7.

Is Cognito a funded company?

Cognito is a funded company, having raised a total of $***** in its 1st and only funding round, a Seed round on Jun 25, 2014.

When was the latest funding round of Cognito?

Cognito's latest funding was a $***** Seed round on Jun 25, 2014, with participation from 6 investors.

Where does Cognito rank among its competitors?

Cognito ranks 276th amongst 1824 active competitors, of which 361 are funded. It stands 11th in terms of total funding among its competitors. The most recent competitor to raise funding was Sift, which secured $507K in Oct, 2025.

Who are the top competitors of Cognito?

Cognito's top competitors include ComplyAdvantage, Yoti and IDnow. Among them, Sift secured the most recent funding round in October, 2025.

Cognito - 2026 Company Profile, Team, Funding & Competitors

Q: Is Cognito an acquired company?

Cognito got acquired by Plaid on Jan 20, 2022.

Company Details

Cognito is a cloud-based anti-fraud solutions provider. The product offered by the company is an identity verification and anti-fraud platform for secure online transactions. It provides an API to integrate into a product or service. The features of the product include automated business verification, watchlist screening, etc. The clients of the company include Nextdoor, QUADPAY, BRIX, etc.

Website: cognitohq.com
Social
Email ID: *****@cognitohq.com
Phone Number: +1 **********
Registered Address: Walnut, California

Key Metrics

Founded Year

2013

Location

San Francisco, United States

Stage

Acquired

Total Funding

$2M in 1 round

Latest Funding Round

Seed, Jun 25, 2014, $*****

Investors

Y Combinator & 7 more

Ranked

276^th among 1824 active competitors

Employee Count

7 as on Aug 31, 2026

Similar Companies

Yoti & 1425 more

Exit Details

Acquired by Plaid (Jan 20, 2022)

View Cognito's full profile

Cognito is associated with 1 legal entity given below:

Legal Entity Name	Date of Incorporation	Revenue	Latest Employee Count	Documents
BLOCKSCORE, INC. CIN: 463075346 , United States, Active	Dec 31, 1999	-	18 (As on Dec 31, 2021)	-

Cognito got acquired by Plaid on Jan 20, 2022 at an acquisition amount of $*****.

Click here to take a look at Cognito's acquisition in detail

Cognito has raised a total funding of $2M over 1 round. Its latest funding round was a Seed round on Jun 25, 2014 for $*****. 6 investors participated in its latest round. Cognito has 8 institutional investors.

Here is the list of recent funding rounds of Cognito:

Date of Funding	Funding Amount	Round Name	Post-Money Valuation	Revenue Multiple	Lead Investors	Other Investors
Jun 25, 2014	7602355	Seed	4574109	1756584	9599840	8546205

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View details of Cognito's funding rounds and investors

The founders of Cognito are Alain Meier and John Backus.

Here are the details of Cognito's key team members:

Alain Meier: Co-Founder & CEO of Cognito.
Contact Info: 1 email address
John Backus: Co-Founder & CTO of Cognito.
Contact Info: 1 email address

View details of Cognito's Founder profiles and Board Members

Cognito's employee count trend

Cognito has 7 employees as of Aug 26. Here is Cognito's employee count trend over the years:

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Top competitors of Cognito include ComplyAdvantage, Yoti and IDnow. Here is the list of Top 10 competitors of Cognito, ranked by Tracxn score:

Rank	Company Details	Short Description	Total Funding	Investors	Tracxn Score
1st	ComplyAdvantage 2014, London (United Kingdom), Series C	Cloud-based AML solutions	$171M	Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, Index Ventures ... & 46 others	75/100
2nd	Yoti 2014, London (United Kingdom), Series B	Provider of privacy-focused identity and age solutions	$210M	HSBC, Nex.D & 12 others	75/100
3rd	IDnow 2010, Munich (Germany), Acquired	Provider of automated and expert-led identity verification and digital trust services	$40M	Seventure Partners, BayBG Venture Capital ... & 40 others	75/100
4th	Sift 1997, San Francisco (United States), Series D	Provider of an AI-powered platform for fraud detection and prevention	$162M	Insight Partners, Spark Capital & 22 others	75/100
5th	M2P Fintech 2014, Chennai (India), Series D	Provider of APIs enabling banking, lending, and payment financial services	$188M	8i Ventures, Beenext & 64 others	74/100
6th	Simplex 2014, Ramat Gan (Israel), Acquired	AI-based crypto payments and fraud prevention solutions for businesses	$19M	Cumberland Mining, FundersClub & 12 others	73/100
7th	Jumio 2010, Sunnyvale (United States), Acquired	Provider of AI-powered identity verification solutions	$201M	Millennium Technology Value Partners, Great Hill Partners ... & 10 others	73/100
8th	Profitero 2009, Dun Laoghaire (Ireland), Acquired	Platform offering E- Commerce analytics solutions	$28.2M	Scaleworks, Seedcamp & 10 others	73/100
9th	Digio 2016, Bengaluru (India), Seed	Provider of digital solutions for KYC, document management, and digital signatures	$11.9M	Rainmatter, Groww & 3 others	72/100
10th	Quantexa 2016, London (United Kingdom), Series F	Provider of decision intelligence software for connecting fragmented enterprise data	$545M	GIC, Dawn Capital & 14 others	71/100
276th	Cognito 2013, San Francisco (United States), Acquired	Cloud-based anti-fraud solutions provider	$2M	Boost VC, NAV.VC & 6 others	43/100