Tallinn-based Veriff, an online identity verification (IDV) provider, announced on Thursday that it has raised $100M (approx €89.28M) in its Series C round of funding. With this round, the startup has managed to achieve the status of a unicorn and currently sits at a valuation of $1.5B (approx €1.33B).
Prior to this, Veriff raised $69M (approx €57.6M) in its Series B round, in April 2021, led by IVP and Accel. To date, it has raised a total funding of $200M (approx €178.61M).
Investors in this round
The current round of funding was co-led by Tiger Global and Alkeon Capital along with participation from existing investors IVP and Accel.
John Curtius, Partner at Tiger Global says, “A reliable IDV solution for today’s digital businesses and consumers has been exacerbated over the past two years as all operations moved online to conduct business. Veriff has created a product to ensure trust and safety online. We’re excited to join their mission of making trust reliable and scalable online.”
Capital utilisation
The proceeds from this round will help the company to accelerate its global growth and invest in research and development, especially to advance product expansion. Besides, the company will also expand its sales and marketing teams to onboard more clients and build on recent customer success programs.
Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of Veriff, says, “Organisations and consumers needed to verify identities online more than ever before in 2021 – from onboarding remote employees, to creating a safe space for gaming in the metaverse, and conducting business fully online – which makes the establishment of digital trust and transparency incredibly critical. The gigantic boom in digital services has increased the demand for IDV for any business online, and every person on this planet can be a user of Veriff.”
Through its AI-powered, video-first approach, Veriff claims that it is able to make online IDV more accurate than physical face-to-face authentication and prevent more fraud than any other industry player. Secure global IDV enables businesses to unlock the full potential of the virtual world.
AI-powered identity verification software
Founded in 2015 by Kaarel Kotkas and Janer Gorohhov, Veriff claims to have the strongest identity verification service available online. It enables organisations to build trust with their customers through intelligent, accurate, and automated online IDV. The company serves in various sectors, including fintech, crypto, and mobility.
Veriff says that its intelligent decision engine can analyse thousands of technological and behavioural variables in seconds, matching people to more than 10,000 government-issued IDs from over 190 countries and in 40 languages.
Currently, the company has teams in the US, UK, Spain, and Estonia, and employs more than 360 people.
In 2021, Veriff increased verification volumes across the globe by more than 8X, and by 20X in the US. After two years of growing digital transactions online due to the pandemic, Veriff increased verification volume in the financial services sector by 10X in 2021, making Veriff the primary identity verification provider for 95 per cent of its financial services customers.
Marquee customers have helped fuel the 150 per cent increase in customer growth in 2021, including the verification of users’ age to instil trust and safety in the growing digital metaverse environment.