Having been run through bootstrapping, Singapore-based Veiris is planning a token sale in Q2 2018
Businesses in the banking, fintech, travel, and insurance sectors around the world are required by law to verify their customers’ identity through ID collection, a process widely known as know-your-customer (KYC).
The process comes with challenges of its own. Apart from taking a long time for businesses to conduct, it also often requires them to be present and set up branch offices at various locations.
To solve this problem, Singapore-based Veiris built a blockchain-based KYC platform that enables remote identity verification for businesses.
The platform works by connecting fintech companies, banks, utility businesses, and other through its proprietary blockchain-based platform Veiris Enterprise Ecosystem (VeE). The platform performs automated document verification via text, facial, and colour algorithm; enabling businesses to connect and share attestation images of IDs and facial analysis without actually needing to share real documents with each other.
The startup says that this system ensures “frictionless” real-time data integrity and ownership.
Having recently launched its service in Indonesia, the startup named the archipelago and its home country Singapore as its core target market.
“Our plan is to get partnership with fintech companies, OTAs, insuretech companies, dan banks since we are the first in this market,” Veiris CEO Anwar Yunus explains in an email to e27.
In Indonesia, the startup says that it has partnered with a local bitcoin exchange and payment gateway company.
In the market, Veiris is not the only Singapore-based fintech company that offers to ease e-KYC process by digitising it. There is also KYCK which had recently graduated from Plug and Play Indonesia accelerator programme.
“The difference [with KYCK] is that we don’t own the customer data; we provide the ecosystem for enterprises to share the KYC result with each other,” Yunus explains.
The beginning
Veiris was founded in 2015 by Yunus, Gabriel Rey (CTO), and Kevin Chen (COO).
All three co-founders are not new faces in the Southeast Asian startup communities.
While Yunus is known as the founder of Indonesian deal coupon site Dealjava, Rey is the founder and CTO of Triv, a bitcoin OTC-style exchange.
Chen co-founded Keytech Group, a managed service provider that focuses on IT infrastructure and security.
Yunus met Chen at a startup conference in 2014, while he met Rey in 2015 when Dealjava was expanding its operations to Surabaya.
“Rey shared about the idea of e-KYC … he was running a crypto exchange and found it hard to verify his customers’ data. We believe e-KYC is the future because this is the real problem faced by all enterprise in trying to grow exponentially,” he explains.
Interestingly, the Veiris platform began as an internal project in the founders’ previous companies Triv and Dealjava. The team had been using the platform for enterprise verification when they realised the potential that it has as a stand-alone business.
“… After careful consideration, we decide that the technology is good enough to be open to public and as a stand-alone company,” Yunus says.
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The future
For the year 2018, with a focus on the Indonesian market, Veiris plans to secure more partnership with local industry players.
Aiming to secure at least 10 partnerships this year, Yunus said that the startup is currently in talks with leading banks such as Danamon and Shinhan Bank to implement their technology in their operations.
Having been run through bootstrapping, the startup also plans to hold a token sale on multiple exchanges in this second quarter of 2018. Called the VeE Token, the startup aims to raise up to US$18 million through the token sale.
“Most of the funds will be used for developing and marketing, gearing up Veiris to be a KYC market leader,” Yunus said.
The startup is currently gearing up preparation for the ICO by promoting through their own internal network, social media advertising, and ICO listing companies.
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Image Credit: Veiris
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