Certifier raises funding for creating digital credentials infrastructure

17 November 2021

Certifier.me is a polish-based startup that creates verifiable infrastructure for managing digital credentials, certificates, and diplomas. The Certifier solution is designed to help universities, businesses, and institutions improve the efficiency of the credentialing process without the need for printed versions of documents.

The startup has experienced founders: Vlad Turak, previously working for Swedish startup Startdeliver, and serial entrepreneur listed on Forbes "30 under 30" and former co-founder CallPage - Sergey Butko. Black Pearls VC led the pre-seed round. Among the group of investors was also consultancy company Casbeg.

Currently, the Certifier solution is used by more than 50 universities, companies, and organizations. The project is at an early stage of development, but among its customers have, it has the most trusted organizations in the world like the University of Melbourne, Salesforce, Australian Pacific College, Sofia University, and ASEAN University Network.

Our mission is to create a trusted infrastructure that will become the standard for digital certificate issuance, storage, and verification. Currently in the marketplace, a "digital certificate" means a scanned paper document. Students get just such a "PDF certificate" after graduating from college, sometimes worth $100-150K. The situation is absurd and we want to change it.

Vladyslav Turak, co-founder of Certifier

The raised funds will be invested in building API and SDK of the solution, and thanks to joining investors alongside the capital, the company receives know-how in the area of digital documents and scaling sales proses.

The move to digital documents and electronic signatures is growing in popularity across organizations. As an investor in our portfolio, we have a company like Autenti that offers e-signature services. We see that certificate providers will be able to develop further areas of digitalization of document workflows and we strongly believe in the market in which Certifier operates".

Wojciech Drewczyński, Head of Acceleration at Black Pearls VC

Certifier is not the first entity that has taken up the issue of transitioning to digital certificates. Already for several years, a consortium of the world's leading universities has been fighting the problem at the level of academia and scientific papers, and the European Commission is working on the Europass Digital Credentials Infrastructure (EDCI) initiative. The target market is forecast to experience an average annual growth rate of 22.5% between 2021 and 2026, and Certifier's founders expect to nail the upcoming market transformation.

We believe in Certifier team, I met Sergey back in 2016 and I am impressed by his abilities. The project is at an early stage of development, but it has already won its first customers on the global market which proves its good adaptation to the market needs. I couldn't have imagined our first investment better".

Bartek Majewski, CEO of Casbeg

About Black Pearls VC:

Black Pearls VC is a Poland-based early-stage venture capital firm focused on seed, post-seed, and Series A investments in leading tech startups from Northern & Central Europe. Focusing on supporting ambitious entrepreneurs in building companies with a global reach, Black Pearls VCis usually one of the company’s first investors, helping founders scale and reach their goals. Black Pearls VC focuses on deep tech startups working across various sectors and believes in supporting entrepreneurs who develop novel and ambitious technologies. Usually invests at an early stage with initial investments tickets ranging between €100k - €1m and follow-on investments in later rounds. Black Pearls VC is a part of the Kauffman Fellows network of over 400 venture firms and organizations.

About Casbeg:

Casbeg is a consulting firm that supports B2B and e-commerce companies with sales, marketing, and customer service issues. During the 4 years of Casbeg's activity, more than 300 consulting and interim management projects calculated to increase the profit and revenue of the company's clients have been implemented. Certifier represents Casbeg's first investment.