Three people meet at university, discover decentralized identity, win a hackathon, and start a company together. VERA and Animo Solutions have similar founder stories but meet four years apart in a completely different identity landscape. In this builder spotlight, we talk to Max Coleman from VERA, who plans to revolutionize KYB and reduce fraud cases in Africa and is using Paradym to do so.
While the goal to become a leading pan-African tech company in secure B2B relationships might initially sound ambitious, once you talk with Max, it’s difficult not to get on board. Max Coleman, who founded VERA with his co-founders Jack Scott-King and James Clark in 2023, speaks with infectious enthusiasm about how his team came together and stepped into the digital identity sector.
"Jack and I were actually childhood friends and were both studying Information Systems at the University of Cape Town,” said Max, “when we met James, who is a phenomenal developer, we immediately clicked in our ambition and how well we work together.” The three co-founders convinced their university to graduate with their own project instead of a project for an external stakeholder, and that’s how VERA was born.
The team solidified their collaboration by winning a hackathon with their KYC solution for Discovery, a South African bank and insurance provider. Their focus is on the ongoing development of their company and product, alongside the search for a product-market fit. Their core mission is to combat communication fraud. “In South-Africa, business communication fraud is continually one of the biggest concerns plaguing legal entities and businesses. Almost everything happens over email, and the major security issues here are what we’re aiming to solve with our secure B2B chat using verifiable credentials and DIDComm.”
What they’re building with Paradym
VERA is building a proof of concept for their B2B solution to reduce communication fraud. The product comprises a web application that businesses can use to exchange trusted information over a secure DIDComm chat. The chat is established and secured by verifying VERA business identity credentials. Paradym is used as the issuer to onboard organizations and issue them their VERA business identity credentials.
It’s not a simple technology to build a product with, but the VERA team is putting in the work to understand the complexities bottom-up. “We really don’t want to skip any steps, so we’re diving as deep as we need to. Sometimes it’s difficult, and what we want to build just isn’t there yet,” Max states as we discuss how the team handles working with a reasonably new technology such as verifiable credentials. “Solutions such as Paradym are what is enabling us to grow and build quicker. We are using Paradym directly as an issuer so that we can focus all our time on the web application with secure chat, the main product.”.
One thing the team found surprising was the community surrounding verifiable credentials. Max reflects, “It’s a really healthy-feeling industry. Everyone wants one another to succeed and is readily available to help. That was very surprising to us.” The next steps for VERA are to finish their proof of concept and further grow and develop their initial partnerships. And then to continue the road to becoming that leading pan African technology company. As Max himself says “the possibilities are endless with self-sovereign identity, and we’re going to give it our all!”
This interview was held between Max Coleman (co-founder VERA) and Ana Goessens (co-founder Paradym & Animo Solutions) on April 18th 2024. For further information on VERA you can reach out to Max at maxcoleman@vera-id.io or follow the company on LinkedIn. Do you want to revolutionize an industry like VERA is doing for B2B communication? Reach out to Ana or start building on the free tier right now!