Duna, an Amsterdam-based identity verification company, has secured new growth capital. A group of international investors, including Frank Slootman, is investing a total of €30 million in the fintech, which serves a range of major companies.
This marks the second investment round within a year. It is uncommon for a Dutch company to announce another significant funding round so quickly. In May last year, the company raised €10 million. That round also came together rapidly: at the time, the company had only been live with a website for a week, yet already counted clients such as Bol, Brand New Day and Plaid.
Gatekeeper function
Duna simplifies the onboarding process for its clients. For example, for Bol the company handles the verification of all partners — the businesses that use the retailer’s platform to sell their products.
This concerns what banks refer to as the gatekeeper function. The fintech carries out identity checks, investigates whether there are any potentially negative media reports about individuals within or connected to a company, and examines ownership structures. Data from registries such as the Dutch Chamber of Commerce is filled in automatically.
“These are processes that have been completely taken over by compliance rules,” says Duna co-founder Duco van Lanschot, clicking through the various screens of the onboarding flow. “It’s sluggish, slow and bureaucratic. Companies have forgotten that onboarding is also a form of customer interaction.”
Transferable identity
The ultimate goal is a financial passport that can be transferred across multiple platforms, with Duna acting as the central hub for maintaining those details. The company claims it can speed up onboarding by a factor of ten. “Compliance and identity checks account for between 10% and 20% of a bank’s total costs. Maintaining those systems is expensive, and mistakes are easily made,” Van Lanschot says.
The financial sector is one of Duna’s target markets. In addition to Brand New Day Bank, clients include Spanish Klarna competitor SeQura, Dutch hotel software company Mews, and Sweden’s Svea Bank.
The latest funding round was led by CapitalG. This Alphabet (Google) venture fund has previously invested in payment provider Stripe, language-learning app Duolingo, and digital bank Monzo. Alongside CapitalG, Index Ventures, Puzzle Ventures and tech entrepreneur Frank Slootman are participating. The latter has already taken three technology companies public.
