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Signifyd signs Chendong Zou as VP of engineering



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Chendong Zou

Previously at IBM and Rocket Fuel, new head of Engineering hired to Amplify Machine Learning and Eliminate Fraud for Ecommerce Merchants

Zou will leverage his extensive engineering background and leadership experience at rapidly growing software companies to help Signifyd scale and eliminate fraud

SAN JOSE, Calif. – January 11, 2016 – Signifyd, the fastest-growing provider of guaranteed fraud protection for ecommerce businesses, announced today the hiring of Chendong Zou, as its new Vice President of Engineering. This strategic addition comes just months after a $19 million round of Signifyd funding led by Amex Ventures, Menlo Ventures and TriplePoint Capital last September. For almost twenty years, Zou has used Artificial Intelligence, machine learning and big data science to empower businesses through automation and predictability. In his new role, Zou’s aim will be to further advance Signifyd’s machine learning technology which eliminates fraud losses for ecommerce merchants and is backed by a 100% financial guarantee. Zou earned his PhD in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Prior to joining Signifyd, Zou served as the VP of Engineering at Rocket Fuel, a programmatic marketing company that uses AI and big data to precisely predict behaviors for each customer as their priorities and motivations change from moment to moment. Zou helped scale the team at Rocket Fuel through the company’s impressive IPO in 2013. In the early 2000s, Zou served as a Senior Technical Engineer for CrossWorlds Software, Inc that enabled businesses to integrate enterprise processes for their specific industry. After CrossWorlds was acquired by IBM for $129 million, Zou continued working on the architecture for WebSphere BPM for many years.

“I’m ecstatic to make the transition from adtech to the fraud prevention space and believe my experiences at Rocket Fuel and IBM will provide a fresh perspective on how disparate data from dynamic sources can be scaled in real-time to meet the needs of a rapidly growing customer base,” said Zou. “I look forward to scaling Signifyd’s engineering team and its infrastructure, as well as keeping Signifyd’s real-time machine learning ahead of fraudsters and any existing solution in the market.”

Signifyd’s confidence in its Engineering team and its real-time machine learning is demonstrated by its 100% financial guarantee against fraud for its customers. Far from the outdated score-reporting methods used by traditional fraud prevention companies, Signifyd provides an instant “Approve” or “Decline” decision for every order it evaluates. Signifyd serves thousands of ecommerce merchants, including Fortune 1000 retailers like Lacoste, and Peet’s Coffee & Tea.

“We are incredibly fortunate to have Chendong lead Signifyd’s mission to eliminate fraud losses for ecommerce merchants,” said Raj Ramanand CEO and co-founder of Signifyd. “His years of experience managing real-time machine learning and strategic integrations with market leaders will help scale our platform to meet the growing demands of our customers and partners.”

Signifyd is integrated with larger fraud prevention solutions, such as Accertify, to provide enterprise customers with flexible protection options from within their existing platform. Signifyd is also integrated with leading ecommerce platform Magento and ThreatMetrix® The Digital Identity Company™.

About Signifyd

Signifyd was founded on the belief that ecommerce businesses should be able to grow without fear of fraud. Signifyd solves the challenges that growing ecommerce businesses persistently face: billions of dollars lost in chargebacks, customer dissatisfaction from mistaken declines, and operational costs due to tedious, manual transaction investigation. Signifyd Guaranteed Payments protect online retailers against fraud and chargebacks with a 100% financial guarantee against fraud for every approved order. Signifyd’s full-service machine-learning engine automates fraud prevention allowing businesses to increase sales and open new markets while reducing risk. Signifyd is a chargeback prevention company for multiple companies on the Fortune 1000 and Internet Retailer Top 500 list. Signifyd was recognized as one of the 50 most innovative Fintech companies of 2016 by Forbes and is headquartered in San Jose, CA. For more information, please visit www.signifyd.com.

Sourabh Kothari

Sourabh Kothari

Sourabh is the former Director of Merchant Advocacy at Signifyd, where he brought over 18 years of experience defining, designing and delivering content through stories, events and video.