Here’s why this Lithuanian biometric firm is “undeterred by Brexit”; moves its HQs to London after raising €1.6M

Despite Brexit, some EU startups are still choosing to move their headquarters to the UK. One such example is Ondato, a Lithuania-based digital and biometric authentication company. It has announced that it’s expanding in the UK and will now be based in London’s Canary Wharf district.

Expansion plans

The move comes after Ondato’s recent $2M (approx €1.6M) Seed round from investors including Startup Wise Guys and OTB Ventures, two investors that focus on Central and Eastern Europe. With the funds, the company intends to power the digital economy in 2021 with its biometric authentication software meant for user onboarding.

Recently, the EU and UK signed a historic post-Brexit trade agreement last week. 

Liudas Kanapienis, founder and Chief Executive of Ondato, says, “The UK remains a business capital for Europe and we are excited to call London our new home – undeterred by Brexit. Amid the unprecedented global disruption of 2020, agile startups such as Ondato have rapidly grown to meet the new needs of an increasingly digitised economy.”

Everything about Ondato

Founded in 2016 by Liudas Kanapienis, Ondato provides a complete compliance management suite in regards to KYC procedure. It offers both photo and live video identity verification, data monitoring, screening, due diligence, risk scoring and case management, among others. 

Ondato started offering KYC services last year and is now recognised as a leading fintech with high prospects. Back in 2019, it was recognised as the fintech of the year at the German-Lithuanian Business Awards and was among the Top 10 Scale Ups in Eastern Europe, according to the company. 

At the time of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ondato adapted the technologies it was developing to be used by insurance companies, the attorney segment, and state institutions. Thereby, helping them continue to provide their uninterrupted services during the tough situation.

Ondato claims to have over 150 clients across 24 countries, from startups to major corporate banks and has plans to expand its services in countries including Germany, France and Spain this year. Besides, according to the company its annualised revenue has tripled since the start of 2020.

Previous funding

The company participated in Startup Wise Guys accelerator programme and as a result, in June 2020, it closed a pre-seed round and attracted €450K from the Startup Wise Guys accelerator fund (1).

Start-up Wise Guys fund is a part of the Acceleration Fund Programme, which is financed via the Business Finance Fund that in turn is financed by the European Regional Development Fund. The Business Finance Fund gets funding via EU funds based on the 2014-2020 EU fund investment action programme in the country.