Background screening and verification platform Everproof has recently announced the completion of a $1.5 million seed round, led by Reinventure and including Allectus Capital. The raise will fuel growth of the team as they extend their success from other highly-regulated industries to be a trusted industry standard in financial services.
Unlike traditional screening services that generate once off verification reports, Everproof creates continuous verified profiles for individuals and organisations that can be utilised on an ongoing basis. This removes unnecessary cost duplication, time delays, and mitigates the long-tail risk of employment, giving organisations complete visibility over the compliance of their workforce.
Launched in 2016, the Company found initial traction in the sports and recreation industry. Continuously verifying over 15,000 working with children checks per week across 1,000 organisations, Everproof soon became the trusted industry standard in the sector.
What is the motivation behind Everproof?
“We noticed that individuals began utilising their same account with multiple organisations with which they were affiliated,” says Everproof CEO Nathan Merzvinskis. “Not only did this streamline the onboarding process for staff and volunteers of our clients, but this level of adoption also meant that, if there were bad apples that existed in the industry, we could prevent them from moving from one organisation to the next.”
With significant clients including Cricket Australia, Swimming Victoria and The Australian Childhood Foundation using their service, Everproof is now positioned to expand this model of transparency into the financial services industry.
“Financial institutions are already paying to perform background checks on employees, but this once-off check is only being utilised at the point of entry into an organisation. This doesn’t help mitigate any risk during that employee’s tenure. By bringing verified data onto our platform, Everproof creates many additional benefits from the same data source” says Merzvinskis.
“Last year, The Australian Bankers’ Association implemented a new protocol allowing banks to access more information on prospective employees to prevent bad apples moving around the industry. We believe we can greatly assist in this area, further enhancing consumer protection.”
Alongside Reinventure’s investment, Everproof also welcomes General Partner Kara Frederick to the Board. Kara’s international financial services experience as an executive at Goldman, Sachs & Co. and her astute understanding of the industry landscape will be valuable assets for the start-up.
“Reinventure was an obvious choice to lead this round. The team has the perfect blend of knowledge in financial services, data and security. We clicked immediately and are delighted to have Kara join the board and include Reinventure on our journey,” says Merzvinskis.
Why has Everproof attracted this funding?
Reinventure Partner Kara Frederick sees a strong network effect in Everproof’s verification platform and is excited by its potential for impact in the financial services industry and beyond.
“According to IDC, the global market for digital identity verification is tens of billions of dollars. The financial services sector is leading this demand and Australia is among the fastest-growing regions” says Ms Frederick. “Compelling market dynamics and clients who are raving fans of the product, coupled with a co-founding team among the strongest of any we have backed, make us particularly excited about our investment in Everproof.”
With the current Review into Open Banking demonstrating a commitment to data sharing in financial services, Everproof believes it is the right time to evolve the model of background verification.
“We see an opportunity to extend this willingness of financial institutions to collaborate to ensure a safer industry, not just a more competitive one” says Merzvinskis.
Everproof’s platform is poised to help regulated industries avoid the reputational and financial damage incurred through non-compliance. Ultimately, their mission is to create safer and more transparent regulated industries globally through a shared verification resource that can be trusted by anyone, anywhere.
