Vereign AG, based in Zug, Switzerland, has closed on a financing round of CHF 2.5 million (~ $2.58M) to establish a Swiss network for a verified and self-managed identity service. The financing round was led by AquilaDirekt AG and a renowned Swiss entrepreneur through a family office with participation from other well-known blockchain investors, according to a release.
Vereign reports that it has a solution for self-determined identity, personal data, and online authenticity that is “technologically ahead of its time and requires a larger network to bring it to the market.”
Georg Greve, co-founder and Head of Product Development at Vereign AG, explained that the current COVID-19 crisis has made it clear how fragile trust and authenticity is in the digital realm:
“While many people are forced to work from home or other decentralized locations, a wave of deep fakes, phishing and fraud attempts are aimed at exploiting the weakest link in the security chain,” said Greve. “Identity is the cornerstone of every transaction. Our solution increases the authenticity of the data exchange, since both your own identity and the data are under the control of the respective user.”
The Managing Partners of AquilaDirekt, Philipp Steinberger and Jan Lüchinger, said they consider themselves lucky to have discovered Vereign AG so early.
“Authenticity will be a major challenge in the coming decades and Vereign has a product that is years ahead of the competition. We look forward to bringing it to the market with them.”
totemo, a provider of secure electronic communication that participated in the round, is entering into a strategic technology partnership with Vereign. The company said Vereign will complement its own solutions for secure electronic communication. Marcel Mock, CTO and co-founder of totemo, said:
“With Vereign, we have defined several use cases in which our customers benefit from the combination of the underlying technologies. The first joint project aims to make e-mail even more secure for companies and also to provide additional benefits. We look forward to offering our customers new, innovative solutions this year. “
As part of the collaboration, Dario Perfettibile, CEO of totemo, will receive a seat on the board of Vereign. As a result, totemo will directly support the start-up with its marketing and sales while providing Vereign with access to corporate customers.
CV VC, part of the Swiss Crypto Valley, called Vereign one of their most promising direct investments.
“There is a strong need for authenticity and for having your own digital identity. The company has developed an intelligent and practical solution that is driven by a strong team,” commented Olaf Hannemann, Co-Founder & CIO.
Æternity founded by Yanislav ‘Godfather of Ethereum’ Malahov has formed a technical partnership with Vereign as well as directly investing in the firm.
Additionally, Vereign has worked closely with IBM since its inception and uses platforms based on open source and open standards to provide an additional level of innovation and security that users need to meet current challenges.
Claus Bressmer, co-founder and CEO of Vereign AG, stated:
“We are about to tackle one of the greatest challenges of our time. We cannot do this alone, and I am extremely pleased and grateful to have the support of such an excellent partner network and this respected group of investors.”