How CityBee and Ondato improved first-try registration success from 60% to nearly 80%
CityBee is a leading car-sharing service operating across Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. Founded in 2012, the company has made urban mobility more convenient by giving people access to cars on demand, without the responsibilities of car ownership.
But behind every convenient car-sharing experience is an important responsibility – making sure that the person getting behind the wheel is legally allowed to drive and is exactly who they claim to be.
For more than five years, CityBee has relied on Ondato‘s identity verification solutions to help protect its vehicles, customers, and business while keeping registration as smooth as possible.
This is a story of how CityBee and Ondato built a long-lasting partnership that combines effective fraud prevention with an increasingly frictionless customer experience.
The Challenge
In the car-sharing industry, trust is everything. After all, when a customer registers, they are not simply opening an online service account – they are gaining physical access to a real vehicle.
Therefore, CityBee always faces two critical responsibilities: to ensure that every customer has a valid legal right to drive and to prevent account sharing between users. And with thousands of new customers registering every week, meeting these requirements is no small task.
At the start of its operations, CityBee needed to distinguish genuine customers from fraudsters attempting to register using stolen identities, forged documents, or even deepfakes.
But the challenge didn’t end in just identifying suspicious registrations. The company had to find a way of doing it consistently and efficiently, without creating unnecessary obstacles or friction for legitimate drivers.
As registration volumes increased and fraud techniques evolved, managing these risks became a significant operational challenge.
After all, a verification process that is too complicated can frustrate genuine customers before they even get behind the wheel. On the flip side, an insufficiently thorough verification process can expose the business to serious risks.
CityBee needed a way to balance both priorities – keeping fraudulent users out while making it easier for legitimate customers to get moving.
The Solution: Why Ondato?
When choosing an identity verification provider, CityBee was looking for a reliable partner that understood the specific challenges of car sharing and could offer practical solutions rather than a collection of generic features.
Ondato stood out by taking the time to understand CityBee’s needs.
As Liudvikas Levinger, Head of Customer Service at CityBee, explained, one of the biggest reasons for continuing the partnership with Ondato is: “You actually listen to our problems and offer targeted solutions that we need, rather than offering generic features.”
And it is this personalized attention to a client’s needs that has remained important throughout the entire partnership.
Instead of relying on a single verification method, CityBee uses a combination of four Ondato solutions:
- Driver’s License Checker – to verify driving license documents and help ensure that customers meet the requirements to drive.
- Identity Verification (IDV) – to establish customers’ identities and help detect fraudulent or stolen documents.
- Selfie Check – to add an additional layer of identity assurance through facial verification and help prevent impersonation.
- Video Call – to support more detailed identity verification when additional checks are needed.
Together, these solutions give CityBee a more comprehensive approach to verifying customers and managing fraud risks.
Yet, as in any story, choosing the right technology was only the beginning.
The next challenge for CityBee was to ensure these verification processes would fit naturally into its existing operations without creating unnecessary complexity for its teams.
The Implementation
Even the most advanced identity verification technology is only valuable when it works smoothly in practice.
Fortunately, integrating Ondato into CityBee’s existing processes proved straightforward. As Liudvikas Levinger put it: “The integration itself is incredibly seamless.”
Today, CityBee’s internal operations team can monitor customer onboarding stages directly through the company’s existing platforms. And this means that employees can follow registration progress and understand what is happening without constantly switching between separate systems.
But sometimes, a particular verification needs closer attention. For those cases, Ondato OS comes to the rescue.
“Whenever we need to dig deeper into the granular details of a specific verification, we can easily jump into the Ondato OS system, which gives us all the small, critical details that matter. And it is highly reliable and simple to use,” explained Liudvikas Levinger.
This creates a convenient balance between everyday operational efficiency and access to the detailed verification data needed for more complex cases.
And as the partnership continued, the benefits became increasingly visible in CityBee’s customer onboarding data.
The Results
After more than five years of cooperation, CityBee and Ondato have built a partnership that continues to deliver improvements.
As a highly data-driven company, CityBee closely monitors its registration metrics, and a few noticeable improvements stand out.
1. From 60% to almost 80% first-try registration success
In 2024, approximately 60% of CityBee customers successfully completed registration on their first attempt.
By 2026, that figure had increased to almost 80%.
That’s an improvement of nearly 20% in just two years. For CityBee, these numbers demonstrate how continuous improvements in Ondato’s verification technology contribute to a better onboarding experience.
However, when looking beyond the percentages, other values also emerge.
2. A smoother experience for legitimate customers
Previously, unsuccessful verification attempts could mean customers having to retake photos, repeat steps, contact support, or wait for manual assistance.
As first-attempt registration success improved, fewer customers encountered such problems, due to a more intuitive onboarding journey.
CityBee’s customers now enjoy less confusion and fewer interruptions between downloading the app and getting ready to drive.
And in a business built around convenience, these small improvements can make a great difference.
3. Less friction for internal teams
The improvements also benefit CityBee’s daily operations.
When more customers successfully register on their first attempt, there are fewer unsuccessful verification attempts requiring follow-up. This, in turn, helps reduce support interactions and the need for manual clarification.
Meanwhile, access to verification progress via internal platforms and detailed information via Ondato OS keeps the process manageable for CityBee’s operational teams.
4. Stronger fraud prevention
For CityBee, preventing fraud and account sharing remains the highest priority.
By combining Ondato’s verification solutions with the expertise of its internal fraud prevention team, CityBee has developed an effective approach to managing these risks.
Today, the company reports strong success in mitigating fraud and account sharing, while continuing to make registration easier for legitimate customers.
A partnership that keeps evolving
After more than five years, CityBee continues to see improvements from its partnership with Ondato. From better first-attempt registration rates to reliable day-to-day operations, the collaboration demonstrates the value of technology that evolves alongside customer needs.
Looking back on the partnership over the years, Liudvikas Levinger stressed that having a great system is one thing, but the people behind it are what truly set Ondato apart.
“We have always maintained a phenomenal relationship with Ondato’s team. Their communication style is remarkably proactive. They are constantly asking what can be improved, presenting new solutions, and providing demos. Whenever an issue arises, Ondato gets back to us quickly and resolves it immediately. That proactive, responsive care is exactly what defines a reliable partner, and Ondato is a prime example of it,”concluded Liudvikas Levinger.
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If your business is navigating similar challenges around IDV, AML, and sanctions checks, Ondato can help.
Get in touch to explore how we can support your growth while keeping your users safe.
