Exclusive Interview with Justin Lie, Founder & CEO of SHIELD

SHIELD is a global risk intelligence company, that empowers online businesses to stop fraud, build trust, and drive growth. With over a decade of domain expertise, the company specializes in helping mobile apps secure their platforms against evolving and emerging online threats. Its solutions span device fingerprinting, enterprise-grade protection, ad fraud prevention, and alternative credit risk intelligence. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Justin Lie, Founder & CEO of SHIELD.

Kindly brief us about SHIELD, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

SHIELD is a global risk intelligence company, that empowers online businesses to stop fraud, build trust, and drive growth. With over a decade of domain expertise, we specialize in helping mobile apps secure their platforms against evolving and emerging online threats. Our solutions span device fingerprinting, enterprise-grade protection, ad fraud prevention, and alternative credit risk intelligence. We deliver actionable, real-time risk intelligence to leading internet companies in all industries, from ride-hailing and e-commerce to gaming and social media. Today, we have offices worldwide, and a global clientele spread across six continents.

With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company?

SHIELD was founded in 2008 when modern fraud prevention was still in its infancy. When I was a teenager, I ran a cross-border e-commerce business. I noticed that my website kept being targeted by online fraudsters, so I decided to build a system that could detect and stop them.

That was the beginning of SHIELD. Many years of research and development later and we find ourselves where we are today – rapidly achieving our mission to continue shielding the world from all online fraud.

Kindly share your point of view on the need for risk intelligence in India

There are two points to cover: the awareness and the business perspectives.

Rapidly expanding organizations are a goldmine for fraudsters. As they grow, the attack surface for fraud increases. It's estimated that 60% of small and medium businesses go out of business within 6 months of being hit by a fraud attack. It's easy for businesses to prioritize expansion over security in periods of rapid growth, and that's when fraudsters hit.

India might be home to the fastest growing startup ecosystem worldwide, but we see a gap in the security and risk intelligence space. Our mission is to help local companies enhance their trust & safety strategies, so they can fortify their ecosystems and focus on growing confidently. Fraud prevention solutions in the market are typically web-based. With India being the second largest mobile app market globally, organizations must safeguard themselves against a growing number of mobile fraud threats. We've had over a decade of experience working with mobile app unicorns worldwide. This has equipped us with expert insight into mobile app fraud trends and threats that we believe will benefit the expanding mobile app ecosystem in India.

Tell us how your company is contributing to the risk intelligence industry of the nation and how the company is benefiting clients. / Please brief us about the products/services/solutions you provide to your customers and how they get value out of it? Brief about the current partnership with Indian enterprises.

Many Indian companies are going global. However, global expansion also means exposure to a global threat pool. To help our customers protect their platforms against new and unknown threats, our technology leverages our Global Intelligence Network (GIN) – a continuously updated library of every threat pattern we've ever seen. Every time a fraud attack happens on another ecosystem, it syncs to our GIN in real-time. With this, our customers can proactively defend their ecosystems against new and emerging threats.

Our technology is also powered by the latest in AI and machine learning technology. We combine this with cutting-edge device fingerprinting and analyze user and activity data to identify known and unknown complex fraud cases. Equipped with this intelligence, our customers can confidently block fraud with ease.

Another key feature of our technology is SHIELD Sentinel. Unlike other fraud prevention solutions that only check for suspicious activity at specific points such as a login or transaction, SHIELD Sentinel checks for risky behavior throughout the entire user session. This means that our customers can catch fraudsters red-handed at any point in the user journey. Whether it's at account creation or reward redemption, this unique piece of technology helps our clients build trust and enhance safety across their platforms.

The reason for SHIELD's entry into India and why did the company choose Bengaluru to launch its engineering hub?

Well, Bangalore is known as the Silicon Valley of India. It's home to a thriving culture of tech entrepreneurship along with a stellar talent pool.

We've already covered multiple industries in India, and have seen great traction over the past year. Our partnerships with some of the country's largest and most successful technology companies have also reinforced our belief that India is a very promising market for us.

On top of this, India is a country filled with passionate and driven individuals. Launching an engineering hub in Bangalore will allow us to tap into the local pool of top tech talent, and grow our diverse tech team worldwide. This will contribute greatly to developing and bringing world-class risk intelligence products to a global audience.

How do you plan to revolutionize the Indian market and what are your plans to tap the market? How are you going to build the talent ecosystem through the engineering hub?

This has two parts so it's best we split it in two.

Organizations in India are extremely innovative and constantly iterate in the face of continuous disruption. They need an anti-fraud solution that can adapt, evolve, and continuously innovate with them. The first generation of anti-fraud solutions is no longer sufficient against sophisticated fraudsters as they understand how these defenses work.

At SHIELD, we've set out to make security frictionless for businesses and their users. Our solution is designed to equip organizations with the best and most accurate risk intelligence, so they can make the most accurate decisions to safeguard their platforms. By stopping fraud in real-time, our solutions are helping organizations future-proof their ecosystems. This allows them to focus on building trust with their users, which is the essential element to driving long-lasting growth.

Our engineering hub will house teams consisting of India's brightest tech talent in machine learning, software development, research and development, and analytics. Our plans to launch an office here are a testament to India's talented workforce. By growing our team in Bangalore, we hope to nurture the next generation of experts in the risk intelligence space.

How do you see the company and the industry in the future?

This is just the first of many new offices we're opening this year. We're leading the global fight against fraud across all geographies and industries, and we don't see ourselves slowing down. We're excited to be welcoming new hires from all corners of the world to add to our diverse team.

With digital platforms evolving quickly, the fraud detection and prevention industry will grow rapidly along with it. The market is expected to hit over USD 70 billion by 2028.

Fraud is ever-evolving. As new threats continue to emerge, we'll also be expanding our product offerings to be able to cover even more types of fraud – exciting times ahead.

What are your growth and hiring plans for the next 12 months?

We're aiming to grow our team in the Bangalore office to 100 by the end of 2022 – and to double that in the next year. Our engineering hub will not only consist of talents in the software development, machine learning, and data spheres but also in the areas of business and research, and development.

What is your Leadership Mantra?

As a leader, you have to lead by example. Our team is driven by a sleeves-up, hands-on attitude, which is actively demonstrated by every leader at SHIELD. Being on the ground and exchanging ideas with different teams is something that builds camaraderie and trust. I am always inspired by my team's initiatives and encourage my team members to thrive through ownership.

I am a strong advocate for an environment where everyone is unafraid to be themselves. At SHIELD, we pride ourselves on having a collaborative, inclusive, and diverse culture where people can shine both individually, and in a team.