Checkr, a San Francisco company best known for employment background checks, acquired Truv, a startup that verifies people's income, employment and assets with their permission. Checkr announced the deal on 18 August 2026.
Terms were not disclosed. Checkr did not publish a price, the form of payment or the number of Truv employees joining.
Checkr said the purchase strengthens its mortgage verification business and marks its entry into government work, through checks on whether applicants qualify for public benefits.
What Truv built
Truv lets lenders, agencies and other customers connect directly to payroll providers and financial institutions, with the consumer's consent, and confirm income, employment and assets in real time. Checkr said Truv's network reaches 96% of the U.S. workforce. The company also verifies bank, self-employment, education and volunteer data through API connections, and sells payroll and bank connectivity products.
Its customers include the public sector, mortgage lenders, background screeners and retail banks. Pulling records straight from the source is meant to replace pay stubs and manual checks, which Checkr said can introduce errors that delay mortgages or benefits.
Truv was previously called Citadel API and launched in 2020, according to FinTech Global. Kirill Klokov is its co-founder and chief executive.
When it raised its Series A, Truv said its consumer-permissioned verification infrastructure connected financial institutions to more than 120 million U.S. employees. Checkr now describes Truv as an open finance company whose verification, payroll connectivity and bank connectivity tools sit in one platform.
“From day one, we've believed people should have greater visibility into and control over their own financial information.”
Why Checkr is buying
Checkr has spent the past year adding mortgage, tenant and personal verification products alongside its core background-check business, and says it now serves more than 140,000 customers. It describes itself as an AI-powered verification platform and puts the market it is pursuing across identity, workforce, mortgage and tenant checks at $45 billion.
The company tied the deal to fraud. It cited a Cotality report finding that income fraud accounts for nearly half of the fraud findings in Fannie Mae's investigations, and said Truv's data and industry relationships will help loan officers verify borrowers faster.
Co-founder and chief executive Daniel Yanisse said human verifications are often split across different systems and providers, and that Checkr wants a single platform for businesses, government agencies and individuals. Checkr previously bought Truework, another income and employment verification company.
Checkr has offices in San Francisco, Denver and Santiago, Chile. Its products now span workforce screening, mortgage, tenant, trust, personal and insurance verification, and it says its AI turns fragmented records about people into clear answers on identity, background and credentials.
A first step into government
Truv already works with a growing number of state agencies that administer social programmes, including Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Checkr pointed to a U.S. Government Accountability Office estimate that programmes including these accounted for about $186 billion in improper payments last year.
HousingWire said the deal reflects consolidation of verification work around a few large, API-driven platforms that promise broad coverage and fraud defences. PYMNTS noted that Checkr had hired Tim Yarbrough as chief financial officer in April.
The founders and the funding
Truv raised a $25 million Series A in 2022 led by Kleiner Perkins, with NYCA, Abstract Ventures, Fathom Capital, Elefund, Soma VC and Function also investing, FinTech Global reported. Kleiner Perkins partner Ilya Fushman joined Truv's board as part of that round.
At the time, Fushman said Truv's investment in product, sales and marketing and its partnerships with financial institutions such as Experian would speed its growth. Data trackers give differing totals for Truv's overall funding, and Checkr did not disclose a figure.
Neither company said what will happen to the Truv brand or product after the acquisition. Klokov said Checkr shared Truv's belief in transparency and fairness and that the combined business would bring accurate data to more organisations.
