Tech trio land £150k from Evening Standard start-up fund

The Evening Standard’s campaign to boost London start-ups has made its second major funding award to a trio of technology entrepreneurs revolutionising how employers check the claims job applicants make on their CVs.

Our Kickstart Fund campaign, funded by venture capitalist Triple Point, has invested £150,000 into Veremark, a new venture using digital technology to do fast, efficient background checks.

Veremark co-founder Daniel Callaghan, from Beckenham, said: “We’re so delighted. I’d like to thank the Evening Standard Kickstart campaign so much. It’s really going to help us grow and employ more people.”

Veremark launched last year and does not even yet have an office, but it has been growing rapidly and already has several major corporate clients. Its software automatically links up with government databases to cross check CV information and emails referees and previous employers, speeding up and cutting costs on a process usually done manually.

Kickstart is a key plank in the Standard’s drive to help London bounce back from the Covid-19 crisis in the capital. It is looking for brilliant tech start-ups seeking funds to grow and hire more Londoners.

Daniel Cardenas-Clark at TriplePoint said: “It’s frustrating when you have to wait three weeks for background checks to come back, but with Veremark, we get the results within a few days. It is a no-brainer.”

The Kickstart Fund offers £100,000 to £150,000 to successful applicants, with decisions made in just 10 working days. Supported by six of London’s top tech tycoons who will act as mentors and investors, the Kickstart Fund is also backed by Amazon, which is providing $100,000 of free cloud computing and technical support.

Economists believe London’s tech sector will be the fastest growing area of the capital’s economy. Veremark’s success comes after Kickstart invested £150,000 in a 3D animation designer, Artificial Artists, set up by two Soho advertising executives.

Picture the scene: you’re filling out your CV for your dream job.

You get to the bit about your previous title: “Sales executive”. Hmm, sounds a bit lowly.

Would anyone find out if you promoted yourself to “sales director” to give you that edge in the interview? Surely not…

While you might never lie in job applications, a third of people do. And if you’re an employer who cares about only working with trustworthy characters, that’s a major problem.

So, companies across the world spend $4bn per year on checking people are who they say they are before hiring them.

It’s time consuming work that takes a lot of effort, chasing down character references, previous employers, university records. Not to mention criminal records, bankruptcy and financial checks.

So, firms either have to try and do it themselves or contract the work out specialist screening companies.

However, it can often take an age for the checks to be done. The checking tends to be done manually, making it expensive and not always reliable.

That’s what Veremark’s founders noticed in the market was a serious pain point for companies.

They set out to solve the problem by building a tech-driven background screening platform that helps companies verify their prospective employee credentials in the easiest and most secure way possible.

Veremark CEO, Daniel Callaghan said “There has been limited innovation in the pre-employment screening industry for more than decade and the service is notoriously bad.”

Much of the problem lay in the fact that the work is still mostly done by hand and on excel sheets. That is expensive and can lead to human error, he says.

Callaghan, 38 and from Beckenham, says: “In a tough job market like today’s, candidates have a bigger incentive to embellish on their past achievements. We help our clients counter that risk and make more informed and safer decisions.”

With his old schoolfriend and product designer Daniel Braithwaite along with Angus Bankes, a tech entrepreneur with previous successes, they set up Veremark and got coding.

The candidate uploads their documents and details to Veremark’s system which automatically emails or text messages referees and searches government agency databases for relevant checks.

It also links up to specialist networks around the world to screen additional data providing instant global scale.

As well as running checks for employers, they came up with a product for the applicant, too.

Using blockchain technology, Veremark creates a “passport” certifying that the person’s CV information had been formally screened and verified which they can take to their next employer.

“For millennials, who will be changing jobs every few years during their careers, it’s perfect,” says Callaghan. “They can re-use their verified information and take ownership of it. We aim to create a new model for career credential management and eliminate the inefficiencies in the pre-employment screening market.”

The team began selling the product in the autumn of 2019 and they have already won customers in the UK, Australia, Malaysia. Philippines, Canada, the US and Singapore.

Big name customers already include the some of the world's top management consultancies and numerous well known venture backed businesses, particularly in the fintech industry.

Veremark was growing fast but needed funding for the next phase of improving the product and putting more global sales power behind it.

The team read about the Evening Standard-TriplePoint Kickstart fund and applied.

This week, they received their £150,000 cheque.

“We’re absolutely delighted,” says Callaghan. “Kickstart is fantastic initiative to support high potential ventures across London and will be a major boost to our business.”

Daniel Cardenas-Clark at TriplePoint explained why he selected Veremark as a winner:

“This is a sector where the bar for customer experience has been traditionally low.

“Veremark has an opportunity to build a global brand by delivering a quality product and customer service through their technology.

“We experienced the problem first hand, and became frustrated with waiting three weeks for background checks to come back.

“With Veremark we get the results within a few days and can track the data in real time dash boards.

“It is a no brainer- why would any company accept a poor service when they can receive a superior one?”

Veremark is already employing people in the UK and Asia and will now be hiring more for marketing and product development in London.

Evening Standard readers seeking a role in a fast-growing exciting business, feel free to apply.

Just don’t bother lying on your CV.