Vinny Lingham’s new startup raises US 2 57 million from Social Leverage

Civic, a Palo Alto-based start which aims to tackle the problem of consumer identity theft and reducing online identity fraud, has raised US$2.57 million from Social Leverage, a notable early stage fintech investment fund.

Social Leverage’s founding partner, Howard Lindzon, will also join Civic’s board. Civic, which will offer free lifetime identity protection, will be officially launched in Spring 2016.
“Consumers need better control of their personal information and their digital identities. Civic will deliver a beautiful and secure consumer experience to solve this problem,” Lingham said in a press release.

He added, “We believe that consumers should never have to pay to protect their identity from misuse and that’s why we will be offering free identity protection for life when we launch in spring 2016.”
Lingham is a notable serial entrepreneur. He has served as founder and CEO of three prior companies (Gyft, Yola and Clicks2Customers) and was recently appointed to the board of the Bitcoin Foundation.
He maintains close ties to his homeland, South Africa where he stars in “Dragon’s Den” (South Africa’s version of “Shark Tank”) and is also the co-founder of the local technology hub, the Silicon Cape Initiative.

After a successful leadership transition period following First Data’s acquisition of Gyft, Lingham recently stepped aside from overseeing the company’s day-to-day operations to focus on his entrepreneurial efforts.

His entrepreneurial efforts includes participating in SweepSouth’s recent US$600,000 raise. Also, he doled out US$4,000 investment fund to Mintor, a platform that connects students to employers offering micro-internships, for winning the #pitchvinny competition.

Lingham, who shuttles between South Africa and Silicon Valley where he resides, has reportedly invested over US$415,000 of his own personal funds into South African startups.

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