Serasa Experian, the Brazilian arm of credit bureau Experian, signed an agreement on May 8, 2026 to acquire IDwall, a Brazilian startup that verifies identities and screens for fraud when companies onboard new customers. Serasa said the purchase was part of a plan to strengthen its authentication and fraud-prevention products.
The companies did not disclose the price or other terms, and both declined to comment on the value. Valor Econômico's Pipeline column reported a price of R$400 million (about $80 million), and Startups.com.br reported about R$450 million (about $90 million), both citing people they did not name. Startups said the figure was around five times IDwall's revenue and would be paid upfront; the companies did not confirm either number.
The deal needed clearance from CADE, Brazil's competition authority, and the two businesses stayed independent while it reviewed the filing. CADE's general superintendence approved the purchase of IDwall's entire share capital without restrictions later in May, and Serasa later announced that it had completed the acquisition.
What IDwall built
Lincoln Ando and Raphael Melo founded IDwall in 2016. Its software checks that a person or company is who they claim to be, using biometrics, document validation, background checks and digital onboarding flows. The company said it had more than 400 corporate customers, including Bradesco Saúde, SulAmérica, Shopee, QuintoAndar, Globoplay and Claro.
IDwall said its tools had helped prevent more than R$8 billion (about $1.6 billion) in fraud and that it had processed data on almost the entire Brazilian population and on 18 million companies. In its completion announcement, Serasa said the platform had handled more than 700 million queries and brought 80 million faces, 450 million identity validations a year and more than 350 million background checks into its systems.
Bloomberg Línea named Unico, a unicorn in the same field, and CERTTA, formerly known as CAF, among IDwall's competitors. Neither side disclosed IDwall's headcount or revenue.
Why Serasa is buying
Serasa already owns ClearSale, an anti-fraud provider it bought in 2024 for about R$2 billion (roughly $400 million). Reports on the IDwall deal described the two as complementary: ClearSale screens transactions for fraud, while IDwall checks the identity of the person starting them.
Serasa chief executive Valdemir Bertolo said in the company's statement that fraudsters were using more sophisticated technology at every stage of the customer journey, and that IDwall strengthened a strategy of combining reliable data, artificial intelligence, biometrics and risk analysis. Serasa said it analyses about 2.4 billion transactions a year and that it found almost 1.5 million attempted fraud cases in sign-ups and identity checks in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
In its CADE filing, the companies said the deal would also give IDwall a route into new markets, including outside Brazil, through Experian's presence in other countries.
The founders and the funding
IDwall raised about R$260 million (around $53 million) over roughly ten years, according to Bloomberg Línea. Its last round was a R$210 million Series C in 2021 led by the Endurance family office, Startups.com.br reported, with GGV Capital, Península, Monashees, Norte Ventures, Canary, Qualcomm and ONEVC also taking part.
A venture investor with no stake in the company told Bloomberg Línea that the reported price looked low, and that it could mean some investors were getting back roughly what they had put in. The same investor said he expected part of the payment to take the form of an earn-out for the team and founders. The companies did not comment on that.
A busy buyer in Brazilian data
The IDwall deal ended a pause in Serasa's dealmaking. The company made 14 acquisitions between 2021 and 2024, mostly fintech companies such as PagueVeloz, Mova and SalaryFits, according to Startups.com.br, before the ClearSale purchase. Eduardo Mônaco, ClearSale's former chief executive and now Serasa's vice president for credit and platforms, has said that integrating ClearSale improved Serasa's estimates of consumer income by 30% to 50%.
Founded in 1968, Serasa became part of the London-based Experian group in 2007. It said it handles more than 6.5 million queries a day on companies and consumers.
