Forta is fighting fraud. The fast-growing technology company specialises in fraud detection for the e-commerce industry and sees bright prospects ahead as online shopping surges and digital innovation accelerates.
Founded in 2013, Forta now works globally, providing real-time analysis of trust at every customer interaction for a network of online retailers and banks. As e-commerce continues its rapid evolution - especially post-pandemic - Forta is aiming to stay one step ahead of fraudsters, helping merchants maximise legitimate sales while reducing losses from fraud and policy abuse.
Matt Humphries, the company's Country Manager for Australia and New Zealand, says business is booming. "We've just gone in the past year from 200 to over 400 people," Humphries said. While the team in Sydney currently numbers around five, it is expected to double by the end of January. "The Asia Pacific team is more than 30 people now between those offices that I mentioned," he added. Forta's regional presence includes headquarters in Sydney, as well as offices in Singapore, Shanghai, and Tokyo, and a strong network of channel partners in India and Korea.
Forta's clients are a who's who of the retail world. Internationally, household names such as Nordstrom and ASOS use its fraud-detection software. In Asia Pacific, major marketplaces including Shein rely on its services, while closer to home, Australian and New Zealand merchants like Adore Beauty and Booktopia leverage Forta's technology to distinguish between trustworthy and suspicious transactions. The aim, Humphries explained, is not only to block fraud but "most importantly let in the maximum number of good customers that they can so they can increase conversions and provide a great customer experience."
Humphries highlights the company's partnerships with leading technology and payment players. "We work with the likes of SAP, Salesforce, Adobe, and Shopify on the kind of e-commerce storefront side; work with a number of payment service providers, banks, acquirers, and a number of system integrators," he said. This broad ecosystem approach ensures Forta's solutions can be integrated across the entire spectrum of online retail.
Forta offers its anti-fraud technology as a software-as-a-service platform, allowing merchants to make trust decisions about customers in under a second – a leap forward compared to the traditionally manual, rules-based approaches which have struggled to scale in line with the explosion in online retail.
Market trends are on Forta's side, with the COVID-19 pandemic accelerating the adoption of digital commerce. "It's a great time to be in e-commerce in general but the pandemic, as challenging as it's been, has forced a ton of digital innovation for online retailers," Humphries said. "Customers that might have shopped in store have moved online, and customers that were already buying online are creating more habits and becoming more in tune with that experience."
As a result, consumer expectations have risen. "If it's 30-minute click and collect or two-hour or same-day delivery, the bar has just been raised in terms of those experiences," Humphries explained. "We're well positioned based on having a newer school method, software-as-a-service platform for fraud prevention that allows merchants to make a decision about whether they trust a customer in under one second."
Humphries also points to a shift in the nature of fraud and abuse threatening e-commerce businesses. Beyond traditional fraud, retailers increasingly face challenges from policy abuse, such as customers manipulating return policies, falsely claiming items were not received, or exploiting promotions. "A trend we're seeing is more and more protection against policy abuse - that is, abuse by existing customers rather than broad rings," Humphries said. He believes Forta's artificial intelligence, which leverages a network of more than a billion identities, is as adept at spotting policy abuse as it is at identifying fraudsters.
"We already have those products in place but effectively the same brain can be used for any of those use cases and we're seeing them come up more and more," he said.
The implications spread beyond shopping, with Forta's technologies being adapted to tackle issues such as identity theft and account takeover fraud throughout the journey - at login, purchase, and even post-purchase.
So what's next for Forta in Australia, New Zealand and the broader Asia Pacific region? Humphries is bullish but tight-lipped about specifics. "Speaking broad brush without giving away our product roadmap exactly, I would say that the piece that we're excited about is the move beyond straight fraud prevention," he said. "We are seeing gains in and starting to see fraud exist in other areas outside of just your typical online retailer and e-commerce; identity theft and so on."
Despite the sophisticated technology and rapid growth, Humphries emphasised the company's openness and willingness to connect with potential clients. "Certainly for somebody in the e-commerce news world, you're more than welcome to reach out directly," he said.
Looking ahead, Forta aims to play an increasingly vital role in the Asia Pacific e-commerce landscape, helping businesses adapt to rising customer expectations, more sophisticated digital fraud, and rapid shifts in consumer behaviour.
"It's a great time for us in our space but a great time for the e-commerce space in general, I think," Humphries said.
