Konfir, a London-based SaaS platform that provides background checking and verification for job movers and new homeowners, announced that it has raised £1.6M in a pre-seed round led by Triple Point ventures.
Also, prominent UK tech angels like Michael Pennnington of Gumtree, Duncan Tatton-Brown, and executives from Stripe participated in the round.
How will the funding be used?
The UK company will use the funds to develop its engineering, product, and go-to-market capabilities, while also launching with some of Europe’s largest background checking providers.
Chris Milligan, CEO, Konfir, says, “It’s great to be working with Seb and the team at Triple Point again. I am pleased they have chosen to support Konfir as I’ve always found them helpful. We’ve got the makings of an exciting company here, and our team is passionate about fixing this archaic process. We’ve all been in a position where we’ve had to deal with proving our employment, and as we emerge from the pandemic, it’s critical to speed up this process and in turn, the economy. There is a lot of opportunities given the rate of movement in the job market and pent-up demand.”
What does Konfir solve?
Employment verifications are essential in various consumer life events such as moving jobs or homes. It helps in identifying the authenticity of a candidate and prevents the organisation from fraudulent candidates.
Companies and individuals face an administrative headache having to prove on average either 3 or 5 years of work history. This sensitive employment data is currently shared insecurely via email, PDF, or phone calls.
“The referencing process can take weeks to complete and can significantly hold up the hiring process,” says Oliver Harris, Global Managing Director – Page Outsourcing.
And here’s where Konfir fills the gap!
“What Konfir is doing via API should speed everything up by providing direct access to history that exists in other systems, instead of having to wait for email replies from previous employers,” says Harris.
According to the report, the global employment screening services market was valued at $4.95B in 2020 and is projected to reach $9.92B by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 9.2% from 2021 to 2028.
Transforming employment verification
Led by founder and CEO, Chris Milligan, Konfir securely removes the administrative burden companies face when requesting or completing employment verifications.
Chris has previously founded Adepto, an HRTech company that was acquired by Degreed in 2019.
Moving on, the UK company streamline the approval process by providing instant verifications and tools for the team, in a GDPR-compliant way.
Starts from the UK
Following on from the success of new companies like Truework, Citadel, and Equifax in North America, Konfir is launching in the UK at a time when changes to employment policy are being introduced.
According to the company, the employment verification process in the UK is broken; employee systems of record aren’t accessible, data isn’t secure, and companies spend countless hours on admin.
By combining payroll, banking, and other data sets with a seamless user experience, Konfir achieve what used to take days or weeks, in minutes.
Notably, the UK Home Office has announced that from April 2022, digital technologies can be used for pre-employment checks. The company aims to help UK-based workers get approvals faster while controlling the flow of their data.
The team
Steve O’Neil, the co-founder of Security Watchdog (acquired by Capita Plc), is now Konfir’s Head of Growth. He has already helped the company build demand for up to 1M verifications in the coming year.
Simran Sarkaria will join and oversee the product after making the move from Dojo, a payment provider that now processes £500M each week while maintaining industry-leading NPS.
Paolo Escobar will join as Head of Engineering, having led various development teams in the Fintech space.
Investor
Based out of London, Triple Point has been investing in early-stage businesses for over 15 years and manages over £2.5B of assets. To date, the VC has invested over £600M into early-stage UK businesses, including LendInvest, Capital On Tap, Ably, Vyne, Contis, Credit Kudos and Quit Genius.
Seb Wallace, Investment Manager, Triple Point Ventures, says, “Konfir is solving a major problem for employers and staff across Europe, at a time when hiring and retention is a key priority for businesses across the continent. Chris is an experienced founder and an expert in the HR and employment sector. Having partnered with him in his previous business, we are excited to work together again on Konfir and the promising opportunity it presents. Chris’s vision is compelling and our decision to support Konfir is a testament to our faith in Chris and his proven ability as an entrepreneur.”
