Managing a Startup Fundraising Process in Veriff

Gretlin Prukk is the right hand to our CEO and Founder Kaarel Kotkas, and one of the hardest-working people within Veriff’s growing team. She joined Veriff in June 2019, and has settled well into her first ever start-up role.

As part of her work with Kaarel, she has had to be hands-on during Veriff’s different fundraising processes, including our Series B round earlier this year, which we announced formally in April. If you haven’t been in the heat of the fundraising process, you’re unlikely to appreciate the demand it can place upon those working to bring investment into a company, and convince various financiers why they should choose you over a competitor.

Having seen it firsthand, and been heavily involved in raising our $69 million Series B round, Gretlin put her experiences down on paper for Executive Support Magazine, in a brilliant and insightful article. There’s a small taster below, and a link to the full article on the magazine’s website.

The bulk of fundraising is taken up by time for the CEO to attend investor calls. My rule for contact with potential investors was to reply to any incoming email within one hour during working hours.

One piece of advice is never to set up the first call with your top choice investors. The first pitch is never the best; leave a couple of meetings for practice runs and to collect feedback.

As promised, here’s Gretlin’s full article: Managing a Startup Fundraising Process