The Yorkshire-based company says revenue lifted 23% last year, as its subscriber base grew from 5,012 to 5,874.

It adds that staff numbers almost doubled during the period, rising from 109 to 181.

Managing director Martin Cheek said: “These record results for 2021 come in the context of a 77% increase in turnover at SmartSearch over the past three years.

“This growth reflects a surge in demand for our state-of-the-art technology, especially from regulated companies, as they seek an effective solution to the dramatic rise in attempted fraud and money laundering since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are now focusing on building upon this growth, and SmartSearch’s strategy for moving the business forward will be driven by our new chief executive Guy Harrison, who has joined us [earlier this month] from Dow Jones.”

The business launched its anti-money laundering platform in 2011, and has refined its technology to allow clients to identify and verify their customers in seconds. It says the software conducts identity checks using a combination of credit reference data and trusted public sources.