Certn, a Victoria, British Columbia-based background check platform, has raised a seed-stage financing. No financial terms were disclosed; however, Betakit said the round’s value is $975,000. Atrium Ventures, Panache Ventures, Hello Ventures, iNovia Capital and a number of angel investors were among the backers. Launched in 2016 by Andrew McLeod, Evan Dalton and Owen Madrick, Certn’s technology uses available data and artificial intelligence to allow lenders, property managers and employers to more fully evaluate the credibility of applicants. It plans to use the funds raised to enhance its platform and support growth.
PRESS RELEASE
Fastest growing AI background check app Certn closes seed financing
Rapidly growing Canadian tenant screening platform evaluating credibility and predicting future behavior receives funding from leading VC firms and angel investors.
VICTORIA, B.C. April 25th, 2018 – Certn, the background screening platform using AI to predict applicant behavior and change the way lenders, employers and property managers assess credit, announced that is has closed their latest SEED round, thanks to investment from some of Canada’s foremost venture capital firms and angel investors. With investments from Atrium Ventures, Panache Ventures, Hello Ventures and iNovia Capital, the oversubscribed round brings a wealth of experience to the Certn team.
Certn will use the funding to continue enhancing their platform and support their exponential growth. The platform allows property managers to make more accurate risk decisions and evaluate the credibility of millions of applicants, and since its launch in August 2017, Certn has quickly become the fastest-growing tenant screening app in Canada. With over 100,000 units under contract, the platform is now used by roughly 10% of Canada’s enterprise apartment units.
With their new Background Checking Service for employers set to launch soon, the platform is poised for even more rapid growth. To navigate the course, Certn has enlisted Canadian tech heavyweights Hannes Blum, venture partner at Acton Capital, Scott Lake, General Partner at Hello Ventures, and Rasool Rayani join Certn’s Advisory Board.
Certn was created with the goal of promoting inclusion while reducing risk to lenders, financial institutions, property managers, and soon, employers. Property managers and lenders have traditionally relied solely on credit scores and similar methods to determine a customer’s credibility, but by doing so, are missing out on millions of potential clients, who have only marginal credit history but are otherwise trustworthy applicants. It’s estimated that over 3 billion “underbanked” people worldwide could gain access to credit if their trustworthiness could be measured.
“Their innovations will not only make processes more efficient, but will help companies make better decisions by providing a much richer data set,” said Patrick Lor, Managing Partner at Panache Ventures, one of Canada’s leading Seed Venture funds.
Certn’s applicant screening platform uses available data and AI to allow lenders, property managers and employers to evaluate the credibility of applicants without exclusively relying on credit history. By leveraging millions of data points from a database of over one-hundred thousand sources – including credit reports, criminal, court, negative news social media, and employment history – Certn creates comprehensive, 3-dimensional applicant profiles that evaluate candidates’ credibility and character, and can effectively predict how they will behave in the future – allowing employers and landlords to make more informed decisions about who their applicants are.
“Our team has assembled the largest proprietary database of up-to-date, risk-scored information in the industry,” said Andrew McLeod, Certn Co-Founder, “Our platform integrates into existing application processes or can be used as a stand-alone process, automating and streamlining the decision-making process, saving customers time and money. This latest round of funding will help us enhance our platform and provide the best value for our customers.”
This latest successful funding round underlines Certn’s recent success and rapid growth, as well as the confidence the platform has gained from some of Canada’s leading investors and tech entrepreneurs.
“Certn has developed a very sophisticated pre-screening tool for property managers and lenders, and we’re excited to be onboard,” said Hannes Blum, venture partner at Acton Capital and former CEO of Abe Books. “With new funding, Certn will be able to keep doing what they do best – enhance their core technology and target additional market segments for machine learning, while offering their customers compelling value.”
“The team at Certn are some of the hungriest entrepreneurs that I have ever met,” said Scott Lake, General Partner at Hello Ventures and former Co-Founder/CEO of Shopify. “They hunt down every opportunity to find new ways of having more impact in more markets with their core technology, and that’s why they are poised for success.”
Located in Victoria, BC, Certn was co-founded by Andrew McLeod, Evan Dalton and Owen Madrick. The company was awarded the Top Regional Startup prize at the 2017 New Ventures BC competition and were recipients of the 2017 Fundica Cup (Victoria) from the Fundica Roadshow. They were also recently nominated for the 2018 Innovative Excellence Award by the Victoria Advanced Technology Council and named to 2018 Ready To Rocket List.
About Certn Inc.
Certn is a platform used to predict the future behaviors of people, completely changing the way applicant screening is done. Historically, lenders, employers and property managers have relied solely on credit reports or Google searches, turning away great clients and wasting precious time as a result. Certn leverages available data or artificial intelligence (Al) to effectively predict behavioral outcomes, successfully determining an individual’s credibility by evaluating several dimensions of character over millions of data points. Since its inception in 2016, the company has quickly become one of Canada’s fastest growing background check companies. For more information, visit https://certn.co/.
Contact:
Andrew McLeod
social@certn.co
1-844-822-3786
Photo courtesy of Certn