Verimi to get investor money

Many had already written off the Berlin start-up Verimi. Now four shareholders are apparently injecting an eight-figure sum. The names of the backers could hardly be more prominent.

According to information from Finanz Szene and Finance Forward, the fintech Verimi is to receive an eight-figure sum from four of its twelve shareholders. These are said to be Deutsche Bank, Allianz, Samsung and VW Financial Services. There is also an unnamed investor with whom there are high hopes due to his prominent name, the two media outlets learned from those involved.

Verimi is launching its "single sign-on" service in 2018, which, similar to Google and Apple, regulates all processes such as payment, signing, identification and logging in with one ID. Investors such as Deutsche Bank and Allianz are already using Verimi's service for certain parts of their offering, such as logging into online banking.

Verimi failed in the past mainly due to a lack of reach. Users are automatically confronted with the Apple or Google service on a daily basis, while Verimi has to fight for visibility among potential customers. However, the start-up reacted to this and has shifted its focus from mass identities to so-called "high-quality identities" in recent months. These are particularly needed in highly regulated sectors such as the financial industry.