Veriff’s IDV and KYC services cross-reference users against government-issued IDs from 190 countries. The company experienced 600 percent revenue growth in 2020.
Veriff has raised a Series B funding round worth $69 million. The coronavirus pandemic has spurred strong demand for remote identity verification, and the company says it plans to use the funds to continue to scale its operations in the U.S. as well as build out further ID verification capabilities.
The round was led by IVP and Accel. As part of the deal, Jules Maltz of the former and Matt Weigand of the latter will join Veriff’s board. Veriff has raised a total of $92.8 million in funding to date.
“At Veriff, we are building trust and transparency in the online world, and our round marks the highest Series B amount raised to date in the IDV market, putting us one step closer to eliminating widespread identity fraud while helping businesses grow and go digital,” said Founder and CEO Kaarel Kotkas, in a statement. “Veriff is considered a ‘secret weapon’ to fight against fraud and solve the hassle of online identity verification. Now backed by top investors in the world, we look forward to partnering up with more companies to solve their identity verification challenges and work towards bringing more trust online.”
Read More About the Regulatory Landscape of Facial Recognition Technology in the Workplace
Inspired by the Ease of Fooling Online ID Verification Measures, Veriff Uses Hundreds of Data Points to Ensure Users Are Who They Say They Are
Kotkas says he was first inspired to enter the verification space when he was a teenager growing up in Estonia. Surrounded by farms in his youth, he noticed that the string used to tie hay bales did not biodegrade and caused a significant amount of litter. When he found biodegradable string online, he easily fooled the marketplace’s requirement that buyers be at least 18 years old.
Veriff develops identity verification technology that uses a range of methods to make sure users are who they say they are. Its products are designed for both internal company use and know-your-customer (KYC) purposes. These functions can combat fraud and money-laundering in a broad range of online activity.
By using AI and facial recognition systems, Veriff says it can cross-reference users with over 9,000 forms of government-issued ID from 190 different countries.
Veriff’s platform also includes background video-recording and machine-learning systems that help users verify themselves in poor lighting conditions.
In recent years, facial recognition technology has broadly come under fire for biases in some systems and their varying ability to correctly identify people of color. These concerns mostly apply to systems that verify people against a database of images, or one-to-many verification. When it comes to matching a user to their government-issued ID, known as one-to-one verification, AI systems tend to be as accurate as humans.
Rapid Growth in Online Identity Verification
The switch to remote work last year due to the coronavirus pandemic caused a quick rise in demand for online identify verification, or IDV.
Veriff says it tripled its customer base in 2020 and experienced 600 percent growth in annual revenue.
“In a world that is becoming increasingly remote and digital-first, every company needs a solution like Veriff to facilitate internet trust,” said IVP Partner Jules Maltz, in a statement. “Veriff is setting the standard for the IDV market, and we’re proud to support Kaarel Kotkas and team as they build a large, mission-driven company.”
Henry Kronk is the former Managing Editor of Corporate Compliance Insights. His previous reporting has appeared in Exclaim!, the Burlington Free Press, International DJ, eLearning Inside and more. He produced the radio show Code Burst — an investigation into a coding bootcamp that sought to retrain out-of-work coal miners for jobs in tech — for CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal. 
