Estonia-based online identity verification startup Veriff secures $69M in Series B funding to combat online fraud using machine learning

The identity verification (IDV) market is seeing significant demand as a result of the pandemic-driven accelerated digitization across the globe. In 2020 alone, identity fraud cost Americans a total of about $56 billion, with about 49 million consumers falling victim, according to the 2021 Identity Fraud Study by Javelin Strategy & Research. A majority of the losses, $43 billion, stemmed from identity theft scams where criminals interact directly with consumers to steal their information through methods such as robocalls and phishing emails.

Enter Veriff, a Tallinn, Estonia-based global online identity verification startup company that enables organizations to build trust with their customers through intelligent, accurate, and automated online IDV.  Using artificial intelligence and machine learning, Veriff protects businesses and their customers from online identity fraud.

Today, Veriff announced it has secured $69 million in Series B financing in a round led by investment firms IVP and Accel. This latest investment brings Veriff’s total secured funding to date to $92.8 million. Veriff will use the new funding to continue building on its fast-growing market opportunity in the U.S. and deliver on its promise of building a stronger source of identity online than government-issued IDs alone currently provide. In conjunction with the funding, Veriff also announced that Jules Maltz of IVP and Matt Weigand of Accel will also join its Board of Directors.

Founded in 2015 by Janer Gorohhov and Kaarel Kotkas, Veriff makes it easy to connect with people to trust. With the combined forces of machine learning and eagle-eye specialists, Veriff provides the technology its customers need to prevent fraud and stay one step ahead of cybercriminals.

“In a world that is becoming increasingly remote and digital-first, every company needs a solution like Veriff to facilitate internet trust,” said Jules Maltz, general partner at IVP. “Veriff is setting the standard for the IDV market and we’re proud to support Kaarel Kotkas and the team as they build a large, mission-driven company.”

In 2020, Veriff tripled the number of customers and experienced a 6X growth in annual recurring revenue, identifying and stopping identity fraud across the globe for a number of top Fortune 500 companies. Veriff ‘s AI-powered decision engine utilizes machine learning to analyze more than 9,000 variations of government-issued IDs from over 190 countries in 36 different languages.

“Veriff is a global IDV powerhouse,” said Matt Weigand, partner at Accel. “We look forward to supporting Veriff’s efforts to help companies prevent online crime and establish a vital aspect of their business: building trust with customers.”

Unlike other IDV solution providers, Veriff’s IDV technology was crafted in Estonia, a country with a population of only 1.3 million and a national ID system that enables its citizens to pay taxes, vote in elections, view healthcare records, and access financial services online. Veriff’s video-first AI technology combined with sophisticated data crosslinking factor in the signs of identity fraud that basic data extraction, a still image, or biometrics can miss.

“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 Kaarel Kotkas, founder and CEO of Veriff. “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 partner up with more companies to solve their identity verification challenges and work towards bringing more trust online.”