Safety tech provider VerifyMy has closed a £5 million fundraising round as the company looks to capitalise on the global wave of age and identity-related regulation and the growing need for content moderation services.
The investment has come from a group of angel investors including Marijn Muyser, one of the founders at Booking.com.
VerifyMy has two products live in the market – VerifyMyAge, an industry-leading age assurance solution and VerifyMyContent, an end to end content moderation solution which combines identity authentication, AI and human moderation, and complaints resolution. VerifyMyContent was built to specifically meet Mastercard’s requirements in the adult entertainment space.
The company, whose age assurance clients include eBay and Toolstation, will use the new investment to grow the team and fast-track product development as they look to leverage regulatory tailwinds including the UK’s Online Safety Bill, the EU Digital Services Act, California’s Children’s Code and numerous pieces of US state legislation targeting the pornography and social media sectors.
In addition to the new funding, VerifyMy have strengthened their leadership team with the hiring of Michal Karnibad as co-CEO, joining founding CEO Ryan Shaw at the helm.
Karnibad was previously COO at Norwegian solar power specialists Otovo, and before that held the same position at luxury commerce brand Threads.
Founder and now co-CEO Ryan Shaw said: “This investment is testament to everything we have achieved over the last four years, building best-in-class technology and partnering with some of the biggest businesses in the world.
“We are a lean, efficient organisation. Coupled with the wave of regulation, these funds will enable us to deliver strong commercial progress.
“I am delighted that Michal is joining us for the next phase of our growth; her wealth of knowledge and experience scaling technology businesses will be invaluable as we continue our mission of providing frictionless, trustworthy solutions for online platforms to maintain their integrity, protect their reputation and safeguard their customers.”
Karnibad added: “I am excited to have joined Ryan and the VerifyMy business.
“It’s very important for me to be able to make a positive impact at scale and I stand behind our mission and vision to safeguard children and society online.
“We have a great team in place who have accomplished a huge amount with limited resources over the last four years. Our products have been continuously optimised to provide frictionless compliance solutions for our customers and their end users.
“There is a lot for us to do but the calibre of our people and products mean I am convinced our solutions can drive positive change, and we are already making great progress.”
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