These are our candidates for the “FinTech of the Year” : Nect Ltd.
The industry has grown up and has long outgrown its infancy. There are so many companies that shape the industry but not all of them are equally well known. Who are the companies that are the glue between finance and digital technologies?
We still consider it important and relevant to give an award to the most interesting and most relevant German FinTech/Startups. An award from the industry in which we are all active, for the industry. Not bought, not externally influenced, reserved for our independence. As we are diverse and furthermore everyone has different views and focuses, this has always resulted in a good mix. The nominations come from the heart, but the final evaluation process is done by us and is completely detached from us.
At this year’s Transactions 20 conference in Frankfurt we want to award the prize for the Fintech of the year 2020 to lend. In total we have 15 Fintechs nominatedwhich the jury will evaluate in the next weeks according to certain categories. As every year, you are in demand as a strong voice of the Fintech community to give the audience award. The voting will start soon, but first we would like to give the nominated companies the opportunity to introduce themselves.
Nect Ltd.
The Selfie-Ident of Nect enables DSGVO-compliant online identification via App. Users can identify themselves independently, independent of location and without waiting time. For this purpose, the user is first requested to take a video recording of his identity document. In the second step, a selfie video is recorded for face matching.
Using the most modern methods of artificial intelligence, the real time of the recording, the liveliness and legitimacy of the user as well as the legitimacy of the ID document are checked and attempts at fraud are detected at an early stage. Thus, the user can complete his identification within an average of two minutes in compliance with regulatory requirements. The Selfie-Ident offers especially regulated companies, for example from the finance, insurance or health care industry, a cost and time efficient solution to identify their customers. In addition, all companies that want to verify their customers securely, quickly and at low cost benefit from Selfie-Ident.
Facts and figures about Nect
- distribution channel: B2B
- Target group: Corporate customers
- Country of destination: Germany
- Status of financing: Series A
- Other financing envisaged?: yes
- Name of the product(s):
Selfie-Ident
“We solve the onboarding of users into digital business areas by providing simple and secure identity verification.”
The business model of Nect
High abort rates, enormous costs and quality deficiencies: The remote identification procedures that were still in use a few years ago presented the digital channels of regulated companies with a seemingly insurmountable hurdle. For example, the video ID and post-ID procedures are still very time-consuming and the photo-ID procedures of foreign competitors do not comply with German regulations. Benny Bennet Jürgens and Carlo Ulbrich took this as an opportunity in 2017 to found Nect GmbH and develop a technology that finally offered an alternative in line with market requirements. With the 100% in-house developed Robo-Ident technology behind Selfie-Ident, banks and other regulated companies can identify their customers securely, quickly and cost-effectively on the basis of artificial intelligence.
The identification process is carried out by the end user completely autonomously – independent of time and place – and without the assistance of a third party. The focus is on user-friendliness: With the inclusion of the ID document and the selfie video, only two steps are required for identity verification. Various legitimation processes detect attempted fraud ahead of time and ensure a secure procedure for customers and end users.
The onboarding of the companies is possible within a very short time and with little effort, so that the implementation of the Selfie-Ident also convinces with its easy handling. The cost model proves to be advantageous for customers, as only those identifications that have been successfully completed are paid. This minimizes losses and ensures continuous optimization of the process. In addition to the financial, insurance and healthcare sectors, the telecommunications and events sectors are also becoming increasingly important. In addition to the Selfie-Ident, Nect offers further Trust Services based on it. These include e-signature, multi-factor authentication and Ticket-Ident, a combination of identification and ticketing.
Nect: the founders & investors
Benny and Carlo founded Nect GmbH in 2017: Benny, CEO and Founder, focuses on technology and innovation while Carlo, CSO and Founder, is primarily responsible for sales.
Benny’s career began in the insurance industry, where the trained computer scientist worked on various digitisation projects. Before founding his own company, he was a member of the strategy team for digitization and was responsible for the app development of a globally operating insurance company. The knowledge gained over a decade has laid the foundation for a goal-oriented foundation.
Carlo has ten years of experience in B2B sales, sales controlling and project management. In his last position before founding the company, he was sales manager of a global project logistics company with the management of an international team. At the same time as training as a logistics services clerk, he completed a business administration diploma course with a focus on corporate management and marketing.
Together with their team, they have won over 20 pitch competitions and business awards in the last three years.
Investors include the existing shareholder Dieter von Holtzbrinck Ventures (DvH Ventures) and, since May 2020, the venture capital fund ALSTIN Capital with Managing Partner Carsten Maschmeyer, who is convinced of the success of the Nect solution: “The company is a crisis winner among start-ups. The demand for their ID software solution is even higher in these special times. It is faster, more secure and – very important at the moment – completely contactless. The enormous demand for secure processes from business customers confirms that Nect is absolutely right with its business model”.
Milestones: what Nect has achieved so far
One of the first milestones was the live launch of the Selfie-Ident in September 2018 at R+V Versicherung, one of the five largest insurance companies in Germany. The successful implementation laid the foundation for the status quo. A further milestone was the acquisition of the first partner company from the healthcare industry.
With the onboarding of Hanseatische Krankenkasse in January 2019, the first health insurance company in the customer portfolio, Nect succeeded in entering a new sector. Since the beginning of the corona pandemic, Nect has been able to acquire additional companies due to the changed and increased need for contactless identification. Above all, the cooperation with the Hamburgische Investitions- und Förderbank (IFB) presented the team with new challenges. Due to the urgency the Selfie-Ident was implemented overnight at IFB. Furthermore, the Federal Employment Agency could be won as a customer. Here up to 20,000 identifications per day were carried out. Thus, Nect could strengthen its position as a pioneer in AI-based online identification.
Success in 2020
Since the end of 2019, statistically every second person living in Germany can use the Selfie-Ident from Nect for opening a securities account, online customer portal registration or for further registration processes.
What makes Nect so special?
Nect offers a 100% proprietary technology, which allows us to agilely change and adapt it to customer needs at any time. Selfie-Ident is the only self-sufficient solution for AI-based online identification that complies with European standards for trust services.
Despite great ambitions and continuous growth, one thing is always in the foreground for us: a trusting basis with our customers and users. On the one hand, we want to offer a simple, cost and time efficient solution for companies to support them in the process change from off- to online. On the other hand, we want to make an abstract and sensitive topic tangible and understandable and make sure that everyone who comes into contact with Nect feels safe. Cooperation at eye level is the basis for the relationship with all our customers and partners.
What makes your team?
Our Nectees have one thing in common: the unrestricted passion to create something great. Under the motto “Let’s con-nect” we are constantly expanding our team of unique, diverse personalities and profit from each other’s knowledge and skills. Our team is our soul. Each individual gives his or her best every day to grow together.
Processes and products are never “finished” at Nect. Nectees think outside the box and proactively contribute to making us a little better every day.
Where do you see yourselves in the future?
Nect works fast, dynamic and innovative. This means that our products and services will always adapt to change and current needs. At the moment there are several products in development, which will go live during the next year. The goal is to make Selfie-Ident the official market leader in the coming year and establish it as the most popular identification solution for regulated companies.
In five years, the Nect App should be further developed in such a way that it serves as a “storage place” for confidential documents and contracts for the user. Once an identity check has been carried out, the app can be evaluated as a digital identity and used for all occasions.
In order to be able to achieve the above-mentioned goals, the company is striving for a continuous growth of its workforce, so that the current number of employees has doubled in one year.
Last words
All information about Nect and our products can be found at www.nect.com. Benny can also be found as a speaker at various events. If you are interested in working with us – whether for our team or in the context of implementing one of our products – our “digital” doors are always open.
Official voices and moving pictures of Nect can also be found under the following links:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-de/aktuelles/identitaetspruefung-per-handy-1765448
