YC Root Access

Veriff: The Global Identity Infrastructure

Veriff is building the identity layer for the internet. A platform that matches a person to a government-issued ID using just a selfie, helping companies verify users instantly and prevent fraud at global scale. What began in Estonia has grown into one of the world’s leading identity verification systems, processing hundreds of millions of verifications and analyzing thousands of signals per user to stop fraud in real time. In this conversation with YC's Gustaf Alstromer, founder Kaarel Kotkas talks about going from a high school prototype to serving global fintech and marketplace companies, why identity is really an infrastructure problem, how Veriff decides who’s real, and why he sees a future where your digital passport might be issued not by governments — but by Veriff. Learn more about Veriff at https://www.veriff.com. Chapters: 00:00 – How Veriff Started in a High School Computer Lab 01:52 – Why Online Identity Is an Infrastructure Problem 04:58 – Matching IDs With a Selfie 07:10 – Fighting Fraud in Fintech & Marketplaces 10:53 – Scaling Verification to a Global Platform 15:44 – YC, Early Breakthroughs, and Hard Lessons 20:31 – Deepfakes, Signals, and the New Threat Landscape 26:33 – Building a Mission-Driven Team 32:48 – The Digital Passport Vision

GAGustaf AlstromerhostKKKaarel Kotkasguest

Dec 9, 2025·39m·Watch on YouTube ↗

📖 CHAPTERS

1. 1

   Veriff’s core product: verifying a person against a government ID in one flow

   Kaarel Kotkas explains Veriff’s purpose and the basic user experience: capturing an ID and a selfie (often as video) to confirm the person is real and present. He also hints at a broader ambition: making digital identity portable and trusted across borders and platforms.

2. 2

   Origin story: from hacking PayPal as a teen to rebuilding Wise’s verification

   Kaarel traces the founding insight to his early experience bypassing age restrictions online and later stress-testing real KYC flows with better tools (Photoshop/Illustrator). A consulting-style request from TransferWise (Wise) in 2015 turned into the conviction that identity verification needed a ground-up rebuild.

3. 3

   Identity as infrastructure, not compliance SaaS

   The conversation reframes online identity verification as foundational infrastructure akin to Estonia’s digital identity system. Kaarel argues that compliance-driven approaches are insufficient for preventing fraud, especially as real-time payments remove the window for after-the-fact transaction monitoring.

4. 4

   Why video and “1,000+ data points” beat photo-based KYC

   Kaarel explains why early KYC patterns (e.g., “three pictures”) were fundamentally weak and easy to spoof. Veriff’s approach emphasizes richer capture (video end-to-end) and many objective signals to enable scalable, consistent decisions.

5. 5

   First traction: traditional banks, then Uber’s driver onboarding

   Despite fintechs initially viewing Veriff as overbuilt, traditional banks became early adopters because they needed online verification to match or exceed in-person checks. Uber in Estonia followed when local teams needed strong remote onboarding without office visits.

6. 6

   Bootstrapped constraints and early profitability pressure

   Kaarel describes building Veriff as his first and only job, fueled by a small initial investment that forced rapid profitability. The company grew closely alongside customer needs, reinforcing the product’s infrastructure-level ambition.

7. 7

   YC rejection, cap table crisis, and the two-week turnaround

   YC initially passed due to two issues: Kaarel was a solo founder and had an extremely unfavorable cap table after raising early money. He recounts learning what a cap table was, then executing a fast rescue—adding a co-founder and restructuring ownership, including taking a personal loan to buy back equity.

8. 8

   YC batch dynamics: customers wanted to buy Veriff, not just use it

   During YC, many large companies expressed strong interest but pushed acquisition or in-house builds, sometimes withholding contracts that would make fundraising easier. Kaarel explains why remaining independent mattered: cross-industry collaboration against fraud works better when the infrastructure provider isn’t owned by a single platform.

9. 9

   Post-YC scaling: funding, infrastructure, and global media performance

   After YC, Veriff raised seed and then a sizeable Series A, returning to Estonia to scale execution. Kaarel highlights the technical focus on making video-based verification work globally, including in low-connectivity conditions, supported by strong engineering talent in Tallinn.

10. 10

    Crypto boom stress test: massive volumes and fraud at global scale

    Crypto’s growth created both regulatory KYC needs and intense fraud pressure, making Veriff’s accuracy advantage valuable. A large airdrop campaign drove unprecedented global volumes, forcing rapid hiring and operational scaling while managing customer concentration risk.

11. 11

    COVID acceleration: remote life made identity verification essential

    The early pandemic was uncertain and financially awkward (customers delayed payments), but demand surged as services moved online. Veriff became key to remote work, remote examinations, and notarized contracts—reinforcing identity as a baseline requirement for digital society.

12. 12

    From hypergrowth to organizational design: becoming the coach

    Kaarel discusses the shift in founder role from builder to coach as the company scales. He emphasizes keeping the org effective and flat, avoiding unnecessary management layers, and continuously iterating on structure to match the company’s growth rate.

13. 13

    AI and deepfakes: why single-signal verification is breaking

    Deepfakes are now cheap and widely accessible, turning identity fraud into an arms race. Kaarel argues that approaches relying on a single credential (voice, image, or basic biometrics) create false confidence; robust verification requires layered signals and device-level integrity checks.

14. 14

    The digital passport / trust infrastructure vision: identity + trust + ongoing authentication

    Kaarel outlines a broader system where companies need answers to three questions: identity (who), trustworthiness (are they trusted), and continuity (is the same trusted person still behind the account). Veriff’s ambition is portable trust—so good actors carry reputation across platforms while honest users face less friction.