We advised Veriff, a global identity verification service company founded and headquartered in Estonia, on raising USD 100 million in Series C, its biggest funding round yet. The round was co-led by Tiger Global and Alkeon, joined by existing investors IVP and Accel.
Ninth unicorn in Estonia
The latest round brings Veriff’s total funding to USD 200 million and its valuation to USD 1.5 billion, making Veriff the ninth unicorn to be born in Estonia.
In 2021, Estonia became the country with the largest number of unicorns in Europe, only Israel is ahead of Estonia globally. With Veriff, there are now nine unicorns that have either been founded in Estonia or cofounded by Estonians – Skype, Bolt, Wise, Playtech, Pipedrive, ID.me, Gelato and Zego are also part of that family. A unicorn is a term to indicate a privately held startup company valued at over USD 1 billion.
Global growth
Veriff is the global online identity verification company that enables organisations to build trust with their customers through intelligent, accurate, and automated online IDV. Founded in 2015, Veriff serves a global portfolio of organisations across fintech, crypto, and mobility sectors.
The new financing will be used to accelerate Veriff’s global growth and invest in R&D, especially to advance product expansion. The company will also grow its sales and marketing teams to onboard more global clients and build on recent customer success programs.
Unprecedented demand
In 2021, Veriff rapidly increased verification volumes across the globe by more than 8X, and by 20X in the U.S. 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 percent of its financial services customers.
“Organizations 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,” said Kaarel Kotkas, CEO and founder of Veriff.
Our services and client team
We supported Veriff in legal matters related to the fundraising process in cooperation with Veriff’s US counsel. Our project team was led by senior associate Mirell Prosa supported by partner Toomas Prangli.
In 2021, we advised Veriff on raising USD 69 million in Series B funding, this is the highest Series B amount raised to date in the IDV market.
More information – Veriff.
