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Didit Raises $7.5M to Build the Infrastructure for Identity and Fraud
Didit
Middle East & Africa

Identity verification
built for United Arab Emirates Flag of United Arab Emirates

Emirates ID, GCC ID and Passport on one session, screened against UAE regulatory watchlists, $0.33 full KYC, 500 free every month.

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GBTC Finance
Bondex
Crnogorski Telekom
UCSF Neuroscape
Shiply
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Trusted by 2,000+ organizations worldwide.

Country brief

How identity verification works in United Arab Emirates.

The fraud surface and the frameworks an engineering or compliance lead needs before scoping an integration.
Fraud landscape
Three pressures shape Emirati identity fraud: deepfake and synthetic-ID attacks on the wave of VARA-licensed Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) and CBUAE-licensed digital banks, Emirates ID forgery and residence-visa misuse across the expatriate workforce, and AML pressure on cross-border trade-finance and remittance corridors. Didit scores 200+ real-time fraud signals on every session, face morph, replay, injection, document tampering, device intelligence, IP geolocation.
Compliance frameworks
  • Federal Decree-Law 20/2018 (AML/CFT)
  • UAE Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL 2021)
  • CBUAE AML/CFT rulebook
  • VARA Compliance and Risk Management Rulebook
  • SCA AML regulations
  • DIFC DPL · ADGM DPR (free-zone data-protection)
  • FATF 40 recommendations
Regulators

Who supervises identity verification in United Arab Emirates.

These are the supervisors a United Arab Emirates verification flow has to answer to. One Didit hosted flow + one audit log covers every one of them, no separate integration per agency.
  • CBUAE

    Central Bank of the UAE, prudential supervisor for banks, Stored-Value Facility (SVF) issuers, payment service providers, exchange houses, and the broader licensed financial sector. Sets remote-onboarding requirements through the AML/CFT rulebook.

  • SCA

    Securities and Commodities Authority, supervises onshore capital markets, licensed brokers, fund managers, and onshore Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) outside the Dubai VARA perimeter.

  • VARA

    Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, supervises every Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) operating in or from the Emirate of Dubai (excluding the DIFC free zone). Sets crypto-specific Customer Due Diligence and Travel Rule requirements.

  • DIFC + ADGM

    Dubai International Financial Centre and Abu Dhabi Global Market, independent free-zone financial regulators (DFSA and FSRA) running their own common-law frameworks plus standalone data-protection laws (DIFC DPL, ADGM DPR).

  • UAEFIU

    UAE Financial Intelligence Unit, receives Suspicious Transaction Reports under Federal Decree-Law 20/2018 (Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Financing of Terrorism).

  • UAE Data Office

    Federal data-protection authority enforcing the UAE Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) issued in 2021. Governs every identity verification on UAE residents.

Verification flow · One API

Four modules. One verification.

ID, biometric, AML, and a United Arab Emirates database cross-check, composed on one workflow, billed per success, returned in one report.
01 · ID

Capture and read the ID.

Captured on any phone, auto-classified, OCR-parsed, and template-verified.

  • Works for every credential the UAE actually presents, Emirates ID (the authoritative 15-digit national identity card), Residence Visa for foreign residents, GCC ID Cards under mutual recognition, Passport (with the chip read on e-Passports), and the RTA / Emirate-level driving licence.
  • Returns the name, Emirates ID number, date of birth, nationality, and expiry.
Read the docs
Stage 01Capture and read the ID
  • Emirates ID · Residence Visa
  • GCC ID Card · Passport, chip read on e-Passport
  • Driving Licence
02 · Biometric

Match the face. Prove it's a real person..

Selfie confirmed live and matched against the ID portrait.

  • Duplicate check: 1:N face search across existing users. Free.
  • Active liveness ($0.15) for elevated-risk flows, user turns or blinks.
Read the docs
Stage 02Match the face. Prove it's a real person.
  • Selfie on any phone or laptop camera
  • Mobile-handoff QR when the user starts on desktop
03 · AML

Screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media.

1,300+ global sanctions, PEP, and adverse-media lists, plus UAE watchlists:

  • UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (UAEFIU), Suspicious Transaction Report watchlist.
  • Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), regulatory enforcement and suspended-licence list.
  • Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), enforcement and restricted-persons list.
  • Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), VASP enforcement and deregistration list.
  • Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation, UAE Sanctions List.
  • UAE Local Terrorist List, Ministry of Interior terrorism designations.
  • Ministry of Interior (MOI) UAE, security blacklists and deportation orders.
  • Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), regulatory warnings.

Severity-scored. Ongoing monitoring ($0.07/user/yr) re-checks daily and fires a webhook on new hits.

Read the docs
Stage 03Screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media

Screen for sanctions, PEPs, and adverse media , see the docs for the full module surface.

04 · Registry

Bind every check to one audited session.

  • The full bundle anchors at $0.33 per session, same price worldwide.
  • Add Ongoing AML Monitoring ($0.07 per user / year) for the periodic-review obligation Federal Decree-Law 20/2018 expects.
  • The UAE does not currently expose a public consumer or government API for direct authoritative-registry lookups, the ICP population register is accessible only through CBUAE-approved data-partner integrations on Enterprise. Talk to sales to wire that into your workflow.
Read the docs
Stage 04Bind every check to one audited session

Bind every check to one audited session , see the docs for the full module surface.

Documents covered

Every United Arab Emirates document Didit accepts.

One row per accepted credential, flag, document name, document type. Live from the Didit Business Console.
Authoritative datasets

Civil-registry and AML coverage for United Arab Emirates.

One card per dataset Didit cross-checks against, civil registries on the Database Validation API plus the global AML watchlist pool. Each card links to the technical docs.
Compliant by design

Open a new country in one click. We do the hard work.

We open the local subsidiaries, secure the licenses, run the penetration tests, earn the certifications, and align with every new regulation. To ship verifications in a new country, flip a toggle. 220+ countries live, audited and pen-tested every quarter, the only identity provider an EU member-state government has formally called safer than in-person verification.
Read the security & compliance dossier
EU financial sandbox
Tesoro · SEPBLAC · BdE
ISO/IEC 27001
Information security · 2026
SOC 2 · Type I
AICPA · 2026
iBeta Level 1 PAD
NIST / NIAP · 2026
GDPR
EU 2016/679
DORA
EU 2022/2554
MiCA
EU 2023/1114
AMLD6 · eIDAS 2.0
EU-aligned by design
FAQ

Common questions about United Arab Emirates.

What does Didit ship?

Didit is the infrastructure layer for identity and fraud. One Application Programming Interface (API), 25+ composable modules across four product lines:

  • User Verification (KYC, know your customer), Identity Document Verification, liveness, face match, Anti-Money Laundering (AML) screening, Internet Protocol (IP) analysis. $0.33 per full bundle.
  • Business Verification (KYB, know your business), registry, Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO), officers, entity AML, plus a linked KYC session per UBO.
  • Transaction Monitoring, real-time rule engine, case management, Suspicious Activity Report (SAR) workflow.
  • Wallet Screening (KYT, know your transaction), on-chain wallet risk at $0.15 per check, or bring your own screening provider and run it inside Didit.

Compose any module into a workflow with the visual no-code builder, ship in 5 minutes, 500 verifications free every month, forever.

How is Didit different from a single-product Know Your Customer (KYC) vendor?

Most identity vendors sell one slice, a KYC check, an Anti-Money Laundering (AML) list, a wallet screen. Didit ships the infrastructure underneath all of them, and the gap shows up on six axes:

  • Pricing. Public price on every module, $0.33 for a full KYC, 500 verifications free every month, no minimums, no contracts. Single-product vendors hide six-figure minimums behind a sales call.
  • Access. Sandbox in one click, self-serve from day one, production keys on signup. Single-product vendors gate the sandbox behind a contract, months to evaluate.
  • Developer experience. Public docs, a Model Context Protocol (MCP) server for Claude Code and Cursor, and native Software Development Kits (SDKs) for Web, iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. Integrate in 5 minutes with an AI agent or in a working afternoon by hand.
  • User experience. Highest pass rates in the market, sub-2-second end-to-end inference, country-specialised capture flows, 48+ languages out of the box.
  • Flexibility. One /v3/ Application Programming Interface (API) composes 25+ modules across KYC, Know Your Business (KYB), Transaction Monitoring, and Wallet Screening (KYT, know your transaction). A KYB session spawns a linked KYC for every Ultimate Beneficial Owner (UBO); a flagged transaction spawns a step-up KYC remediation, same session, same webhook contract, same audit trail. Single-product vendors sell one shape of KYC and stop there.
  • AI-era fraud. 200+ real-time fraud signals scored on every session, deepfake, injection, synthetic-ID, document forgery, face-morph, device intelligence, replay. Single-product vendors treat deepfake and injection detection as roadmap items, not defaults.

Common in fintech and crypto, the same architecture fits marketplaces, iGaming, mobility, and any vertical where you need to know who someone is and what they are doing.

What does it cost? Is anything actually free?

500 verifications free every month, forever, on every account. No credit card. No sales call. No expiry.

Above the free tier, every module has a public per-success price on didit.me/pricing, $0.33 per full KYC bundle, $0.15 per Identity Document Verification, $0.15 per Wallet Screening, $0.20 per Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Screening, $0.10 per liveness, $0.05 per face match, $0.03 per Internet Protocol (IP) analysis.

Pay-as-you-go, no minimums, no overage surprises. Volume discounts kick in automatically as you grow.

Which UAE regulator covers identity verification on a digital onboarding?

Five sit on top of every UAE identity-verification flow, depending on the licence the firm holds:

  • Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), prudential supervisor for banks, Stored-Value Facility (SVF) issuers, payment service providers, exchange houses. Sets remote-onboarding requirements through the AML/CFT rulebook.
  • Securities and Commodities Authority (SCA), onshore capital-markets and onshore Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) supervisor outside the Dubai VARA perimeter.
  • Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), supervises every VASP operating in or from the Emirate of Dubai (excluding the DIFC free zone).
  • DIFC + ADGM free-zone regulators (DFSA, FSRA), independent common-law regimes running their own AML and data-protection rules.
  • UAE Financial Intelligence Unit (UAEFIU), receives Suspicious Transaction Reports under Federal Decree-Law 20/2018.

The UAE Data Office enforces the Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL 2021) alongside the DIFC and ADGM free-zone data-protection regimes.

Didit ships the hosted flow + the audit log + the watchlist coverage to satisfy all of these at the same time, same POST /v3/session/ workflow, same JSON report, same SOC 2 Type 1 + ISO/IEC 27001 evidence pack.

Does Didit accept GCC ID Cards under mutual recognition?

Yes. UAE-licensed entities frequently onboard residents and visitors holding national identity cards from the other Gulf Cooperation Council member states (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman) under GCC mutual recognition.

  • Every GCC national ID is auto-classified, captured, and OCR-parsed on the same hosted flow as the Emirates ID.
  • Returns the name, ID number, date of birth, nationality, and expiry.
  • AML, biometric, and Face Search 1:N apply identically regardless of which GCC document the user presents.
Is Didit ready for VARA-licensed Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) onboarding?

Yes. Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) requires every licensed VASP to run Customer Due Diligence, Enhanced Due Diligence on high-risk users, ongoing monitoring, and Travel Rule reporting.

Didit covers the full stack on one workflow:

  • Identity Document Verification + Active Liveness + Face Match 1:1 for the Customer Due Diligence onboarding check.
  • AML Screening ($0.20 per check) against the global pool plus UAE regulatory watchlists, including the Executive Office for Control and Non-Proliferation sanctions list and the UAE Local Terrorist List.
  • Wallet Screening (KYT) at $0.15 per check for the on-chain exposure assessment VARA expects.
  • Ongoing AML monitoring ($0.07 per user / year) for the periodic-review obligation.
How long does it take to integrate Didit in the UAE?

5 minutes to a working sandbox, a weekend to a production flow.

  • Sign up at business.didit.me, grab an API key, call POST /v3/session/ with a workflow_id that wires ID Verification + Active Liveness + Face Match + AML, done.
  • AI-agent path: paste the integration prompt at docs.didit.me/integration/integration-prompt into Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Devin, Aider, or Replit Agent. The agent provisions the application, builds the workflow, wires the webhook, and runs a smoke test.
  • Five SDKs share the same session model: Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter.

The first 500 verifications every month are free, forever, pilot the full UAE stack at zero cost before flipping production traffic.

Which language does the hosted verification flow use for UAE users?

Arabic and English, auto-detected from the user's browser / device locale. The hosted UI ships in 48+ languages; UAE users land on the Arabic flow when their device locale signals it, and on English otherwise, both are first-class on the same flow.

The document-recognition layer is decoupled from the UI layer, capture works in any language, and the admin console can be set independently to whichever language your compliance team prefers.

What does the UAE verification cost end-to-end?

Per-module public pricing, pay only for what runs on the session:

  • ID Verification, $0.15 per document check.
  • Passive Liveness, $0.10. Active Liveness, $0.15.
  • Face Match 1:1, $0.05. Face Search 1:N, free.
  • AML Screening, $0.20 per check. Ongoing AML, $0.07 per user / year.
  • Wallet Screening (KYT), $0.15 per check for VARA-licensed VASP flows.

The full KYC bundle (Identity + Passive Liveness + Face Match + IP Analysis) is `$0.33`, same anchor price worldwide, no UAE surcharge. 500 verifications free every month, no credit card. Volume discounts auto-apply above the free tier; Enterprise adds a custom Master Services Agreement (MSA) and data-residency choice.

Infrastructure for identity and fraud.

One API for KYC, KYB, Transaction Monitoring, and Wallet Screening. Integrate in 5 minutes.

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