(Bloomberg) -- Socure has hired Aaron Barfoot as chief financial officer as the digital-fraud prevention company prepares to go public. 

Barfoot joins Socure from rival Forter with the aim of shoring up its balance sheet ahead of an initial public offering, according to Socure Chief Executive Officer Johnny Ayers. Barfoot had been CFO at Forter for more than three years and earlier in his career worked at Amazon.com Inc., Anaconda Inc. and Rackspace Technology Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile. 

Hiring an experienced CFO is a key step before going public. Socure, which has 1,800 corporate clients, is moving in that direction with fast-growing revenue and a focus on achieving profitability, Barfoot said in an interview. 

It had close to $100 million in revenue in 2022, up 376% from 2019, he said. 

Socure, backed by Accel, Tiger Global Management and Scale Venture Partners, was valued at $4.5 billion in a funding round in 2021, according to PitchBook data. Its customers include Chime Financial Inc., SoFi Technologies Inc. and Robinhood Markets Inc. In June, the company announced a $70 million acquisition of document verification company Berbix. 

--With assistance from Ryan Gould.

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