The Veriff Story

It all started with the realization companies don’t have a handle on online ID checks. Now we help businesses of all sizes verify the person behind the account.

The journey towards a single digital identity

Connecting companies with honest people is just the first step. One day the world will be ready for a single digital identity that transcends borders, and gives people rightful ownership of their data. Until then, our identity verification flows are there to nip fraud in the bud. No device, browser, market, or language left behind.

See how Veriff works

It began with a blue string

Growing up on a farm, hay bales were staple of Kaarel Kotkas’s childhood. At the age of 14, he noticed that the strings that bound them did not biodegrade, and often ended up littered across the fields of the otherwise pristine landscape of rural Estonia.

Kaarel set out to find an environmentally-friendly alternative, and after browsing the web he came across the perfect string (it also came in his favorite color). As he registered an account on arguably the biggest global online marketplace, he was asked to verify that he was over 18. After a little photo editing, he breezed through their security and was able to buy the string.

While his mission was a success, Kaarel couldn’t stop thinking about how easy it was to pretend to be someone else online. If successful companies were this vulnerable to fraud, then smaller businesses don’t stand a chance. This early experience planted the seed that would one day grow into Veriff.

Kaarel founded Veriff in 2015 at the age of 20. Shortly after it popped up on the global radar, and in 2018 it joined the YCombinator spring batch. Fast forward to now, Veriff has over 300 employees and serves over 190 countries as the gold standard for online identity verification.

Meet the team

Kaarel Kotkas

Founder & CEO

Kaarel is the strategic thinker behind Veriff’s vision and product. Friendly hacker, who leads the team to be always one step ahead of fraudsters and competition.

Focusing always on the solutions and being full of energy, he empowers Veriff team to stand for the honesty in the digital world. In 2018, Nordic Business Report named him one of 25 most-influential young entrepreneurs in Northern Europe.

Janer Gorohhov

Co-founder & COO

Janer is building a product-oriented team and scaling operations to match Veriff’s growth rate.

He is a tech-savvy innovation enthusiast who started as a full-stack developer. But, as talented people do, he also has a knack for legal and regulatory compliance.

Triin Uustalu

Chief Marketing Officer (CMO)

Triin has been working in startups for more than 15 years. She has been in charge of managing the Skype.com website and has extensive experience in business development, product management, and marketing.

Prior to Veriff, she set up and ran the digital banking at LHV, the largest Estonian bank. Triin is an innovator and great at inspiring teams to reach ambitious goals.