CHAPTERS
- 0:05 – 1:08
Veriff in one sentence: matching a real person to a real ID (and beyond)
Gustaf introduces Kaarel Kotkas and Veriff’s role as an identity verification layer used by major consumer and marketplace brands. Kaarel frames Veriff’s long-term ambition as broader “trust infrastructure,” not just a point-in-time ID check.
- •Veriff verifies identities for platforms like Instacart, Bumble, and Uber
- •Core product: match government ID to the person using the device camera
- •Long-term direction: enabling borderless, reusable trust—not only government-issued passports
- •Theme: making honest people trusted while reducing friction
- 1:08 – 5:50
How the company started: hacking early ID checks and spotting a broken system
Kaarel traces the origin of Veriff to his own experience bypassing early online verification and later testing real flows at Wise (formerly TransferWise). He concludes that the industry’s tools were easy to fool, expensive to run, and harmful to user conversion.
- •Early personal lesson: simple edits (e.g., DOB) could bypass checks
- •2015: Wise asks Kaarel to evaluate and improve their verification
- •Kaarel builds a first version himself and argues it must be rebuilt from scratch
- •Key diagnosis: existing verification didn’t scale, wasn’t accurate, and made fraud cheap
- 5:50 – 7:10
Why online identity is an infrastructure problem (not just compliance)
Kaarel explains that most ID verification historically existed to satisfy compliance requirements, not to stop fraud. Using Estonia as a reference, he argues identity needs to be a foundational layer across services—especially as real-time payments reduce time for “after-the-fact” monitoring.
- •Compliance-driven ID checks often become a checkbox rather than fraud prevention
- •Estonia as a model: digital identity underpins broad public and private services
- •Fintech shift: real-time payments increase the value of accurate upfront verification
- •Veriff’s positioning: infrastructure for trust, not vertical compliance SaaS
- 7:10 – 7:41
Inside the verification flow: selfie, ID, and market-by-market differences
The conversation gets concrete about how Veriff works in product terms: camera-based capture of ID and selfie with guided instructions. Kaarel notes that different countries enable different verification paths, sometimes relying on government registries rather than document capture.
- •User flow: guided capture using the phone camera
- •Goal: confirm a live, voluntary, real-time user with a valid identity
- •Most markets: government-issued IDs; some markets: registry-based verification
- •Country differences depend on government ID “maturity” and adoption
- 7:41 – 10:38
Early go-to-market: winning banks first, then onboarding Uber locally
Despite fintechs initially dismissing the product as “overbuilt,” traditional banks became early adopters because they needed higher assurance. Uber Estonia followed for driver onboarding, leveraging local autonomy to remove reliance on office-based verification.
- •Initial market skepticism: “too much” verification for fast-growing fintechs
- •First customers: Nordic banks seeking online checks as accurate as in-person
- •Uber Estonia use case: remote driver onboarding without office visits
- •Early execution: build product in ~6 months and grow closely with customers
- 10:38 – 16:15
YC rejection to acceptance: solo founder, broken cap table, and a two-week sprint
Gustaf recounts why YC initially passed: Kaarel was solo and the cap table was untenable. Kaarel explains how early bank funding led him to sell too much equity, then describes the intense effort—including adding a co-founder and restructuring ownership—to get into YC quickly.
- •YC concerns: solo founder + cap table misalignment for long-term company building
- •Origin of cap-table issue: early bank investment tied to security readiness
- •Inflection moment: realizing he’d effectively sold ~95% for €60K
- •Fix: bring on a co-founder, renegotiate ownership, and reset incentives fast
- 16:15 – 19:49
Hard lessons during YC: acquisition pressure, independence, and proving scale
In batch, large companies expressed interest but often preferred to buy Veriff rather than become customers, or argued Veriff wasn’t ready for their volumes. Kaarel describes choosing independence—especially after buying the company back—then using YC momentum to accelerate growth and fundraising.
- •Many big prospects wanted to acquire instead of sign as customers
- •Large-volume readiness and credibility became the key hurdle
- •Strategic stance: independence enables industry-wide cooperation against fraud
- •Outcome: rapid growth during batch and stronger investor interest post–Demo Day
- 19:49 – 24:09
Scaling into a global platform: Series A, video infrastructure, and crypto volume shocks
After YC, Veriff raises seed and then a major Series A, focusing on making video-based verification work reliably in varied connectivity conditions. The crypto boom becomes a forcing function for scale, with massive global fraud pressure driving unprecedented volumes and rapid hiring.
- •Post-YC fundraising: seed then a $7.7M Series A
- •Technical focus: reliable video/media analysis under low connectivity/high latency
- •Crypto adoption: fraud follows money; Veriff outperforms “compliance-only” tools
- •Operational scale-up: huge global spikes (e.g., airdrop programs) and fast hiring
- 24:09 – 28:13
COVID demand surge and the challenge of organizational design at speed
COVID creates an immediate spike in online verification needs across industries, even as some customers delay payments amid uncertainty. Kaarel then shifts to leadership lessons: as Veriff grows, his role becomes coaching, and the company must continually refine structure to stay effective and flat.
- •COVID effect: remote life increased demand for trust and verification
- •New use cases: remote exams, notarized contracts, distributed work
- •Leadership transition: founder as coach; team growth must outpace company growth
- •Org design: avoid unnecessary management layers; iterate structure through trial and error
- 28:13 – 34:21
Deepfakes and the new threat landscape: layered signals, device integrity, and an arms race
Kaarel argues deepfakes aren’t new, but are now cheap and widely accessible, making single-signal verification (just voice, just photos, just biometrics) fragile. Veriff’s response is to combine many signals—behavior, sensor data, motion, and device/camera integrity—to detect spoofing and injected media.
- •Deepfakes lowered the cost of impersonation dramatically
- •Single-factor methods (voice-only, media-only) create false confidence
- •Defense strategy: many data points including behavior, accelerometer, and video motion
- •Device integrity checks: detect real camera vs. injected or replayed media
- •Broader impact: platform trust (dating, marketplaces) becomes existential in an AI era
- 34:21 – 36:29
The digital passport vision: identity + trust + continuous authentication
Kaarel outlines a future model where companies must answer three questions: identity, trustworthiness, and ongoing account control. Veriff’s goal is portable trust—so good actors can get lower-friction access across services—culminating in a “digital passport” concept rooted in cross-platform reputation signals.
- •Three core questions: who you are, whether you’re trusted, and whether it’s still you
- •Trust infrastructure goes beyond government ID, incorporating behavior and history
- •Portable trust: carry reputation across borders and platforms
- •Goal: less friction for honest users, stronger defenses against fraudsters
- •Vision: enable global businesses and consumers with a reusable, borderless trust layer
- 36:29 – 39:01
Advice to young founders and what’s next: conviction, collaboration, and long-term building
Kaarel advises early founders to start with deep conviction in a real problem, then apply technology—not the other way around. He closes with Veriff’s priorities: industry collaboration against fraud and building trust systems that scale globally while improving the experience for legitimate users.
- •Founder advice: anchor on the problem, then choose the technology (apps/blockchain/AI are tools)
- •Endurance mindset: both good and bad times pass—stay on track
- •Next steps: deepen industry-wide collaboration to raise the cost of fraud
- •Product direction: answer identity/trust/authentication with minimal friction for honest users
