NordicNinja invests in Veriff
NordicNinja VC has made an investment in Veriff, Estonian online identity verification platform, together with Mosaic Ventures (UK), Y Combinator (US), Change Ventures (EE) and others to fund Veriff’s ramping up global growth and sales to enterprise customers prior to a larger B-series financing round planned in the future.
According to Veriff founder and CEO Kaarel Kotkas, despite the global crisis caused by COVID-19, the company has witnessed increased customer engagement and taken advantage of the accelerated digitalization around the world. “Last year, our verification volumes grew by 35 times, and we’ve kept up with the growth trajectory this year, however, we are also targeting profitability,” said Kotkas.
“We’ve increased our sales volumes, continuously improving our technology, and signed agreements with major global customers in Silicon Valley. As a result of these activities, we’ve earned the trust of investors and we’ll be expecting solid results for the year 2020,” added Kotkas.
Veriff was planning to raise a larger B-series investment this spring to finance global scaling. Considering the unstable business environment, the company decided to raise a smaller investment instead and postpone B-series to the future when the global business environment has improved.
According to Rainer Sternfeld, Managing Partner of NordicNjnja VC, a Japanese-Nordic venture fund and a new investor in Veriff, the identity verification company has shown sound performance.
“Veriff has been able to significantly grow their business, successfully enter the market in the UK as well as in the U.S., and signed agreements with some Silicon Valley’s biggest players. We at NordicNinja are excited to see what the future has in store for Veriff, especially as it’s an essential service with a potential to reach every person on the planet,” Sternfeld added.
The global pandemic has brought along significant paradigm shifts. This has created an increased demand for online identity verification, and Veriff is taking this responsibility seriously.
“During the pandemic, we were in close contact with our international customers, and witnessed how global tech giants as well as more traditional businesses pivoted their strategies in response to the crisis,” said Kotkas.
“In addition, as the Japanese economy is finally moving towards digitalisation amid this pandemic, we see a huge growth opportunity for collaborating with the Japanese enterprises,” mentioned Shinichi Nikkuni, Managing Partner of Nordic Ninja VC.
About Veriff
Veriff is an AI-driven global tech company building a visionary verification platform. Veriff technology makes sure that a person is who they claim to be. With the help of artificial intelligence, Veriff analyses thousands of technological and behavioural variables in seconds, verifying people from 190+ countries.
Founded in 2015 by Kaarel Kotkas, Veriff serves a global portfolio of internet businesses including fintech companies, sharing economy providers and marketplaces in the USA, Europe and other places in the world. Veriff employs 230 people in Estonia and the USA.
Veriff is an alumnus of the startup accelerator Y Combinator. Veriff investors include Mosaic Ventures, Y Combinator, SV Angel, ACE & Company, LIFT99, Superangel, Ashton Kutcher, Paul Buchheit, Elad Gil, Taavet Hinrikus, Sten Tamkivi, Gustaf Alstromer, Anu Harihara, Andrew Prozes and others. https://www.veriff.com/
About NordicNinja VC
NordicNinja VC is an official auxiliary name of JB Nordic Ventures Oy, which is a Helsinki-based joint venture by JBIC IG Partners and BaltCap. JB Nordic Ventures provides investment advisory to JB Nordic Fund I SCSp.