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Jean Iau

Perched on top of a shoe shelf at the entrance of Veriff’s headquarters in Tallinn, Estonia, is a sign of a cartoon unicorn that reads “Welcome to Unicorn Land!”, serving as a reminder of the identity verification company’s rise from a local start-up to a valuation of US$1.5 billion in seven years.
Veriff, which boasts clients including PayPal, Bumble and Visa, was founded by Kaarel Kotkas in 2015. It is one of at least 10 unicorn companies – privately held start-ups valued at more than US$1 billion – in Estonia.
The country, with a population of 1.3 million people, is one of the most successful breeding grounds for these rare start-ups per capita, producing well-known unicorns including Wise, Bolt and Playtech.
Now, Veriff and other Estonian start-ups are increasingly eyeing the fast-growing Southeast Asian market and targeting Singapore as the prime spot for their regional headquarters.
Its chief executive, Kotkas, 31, told This Week in Asia from his Tallinn office last month that Singapore would be the hub for his company in the region in light of its digital advancement.
“Singapore, for me, shares quite a lot of similarities to Estonia especially regarding digital services and digital identity adoption. We know that every single service eventually will depend on it and every country will get there with its own base,” Kotkas said, adding that one of his employees was scouting prospects in Singapore.

Veriff currently has about 650 employees operating globally. In 2025, the company doubled its over US$100 million revenue while remaining profitable. Its recent new customers include the financial services provider Western Union, Instacart and Uber.
Kotkas’ plans to expand into Asean through Singapore echo earlier remarks by Mariin Ratnik, deputy minister for economic and development affairs at the Estonian foreign ministry.
Ratnik told This Week in Asia that Estonian companies were increasingly looking towards Singapore as part of efforts to diversify export markets and partnerships beyond Europe, a trend which accelerated following the Covid-19 pandemic.
“For Estonian companies, especially in digital services, fintech and deep tech, Singapore offers a sophisticated market with high digital adoption, as well as access to capital and international talent,” she said.
Ratnik also noted the countries’ strong alignment in values, such as prioritising digital governance and efficiency, and forward-looking economic policies.
“Singapore is widely seen as a natural gateway to Southeast Asia. Its strategic location, connectivity and role as a regional headquarters hub make it an ideal base for companies looking to expand into Asean markets,” she said.

Singapore is no stranger to Estonian companies. In 2016, government foundation Enterprise Estonia set up its first Southeast Asia office in the city state. It was subsumed in 2023, when Tallinn opened an embassy with a business hub for Estonian companies eyeing expansion to the region.
The Asia-Pacific headquarters of Wise, founded by Estonians Kristo Kaarmann and Taavet Hinrikus, is in Singapore, while other Estonian companies like funding platform Funderbeam and maritime company Bunker Trader have offices in the city state.
Estonia re-declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 and joined the European Union and Nato in 2004.
The country focused on digital infrastructure following its independence and is now one of the world’s most advanced digital societies with 100 per cent of government services, including voting and divorces, handled online.
Kotkas says he benefited from these policies that allowed him to become a digital native despite growing up on a farm.
In 2015, while still in school, he contacted Wise to tell them about security issues with their product and ended up doing a case study with them to show how to fix these bugs. Hinrikus, one of Wise’s founders, then became an early investor in Veriff.
Kotkas realised at the time that digital identity verification was largely inaccurate, did not scale well because it required significant manual support and felt the need to fix the problem since Estonia relied extensively on digital identity infrastructure.
“It was using a hacker mindset but to improve things and make things better,” he said. “It turned out to be my life’s work.”
Unicorns make more unicorns
Estonia’s advanced digital services extend to company registration, as the process is fully digitalised and can be completed in a few hours.
Aside from the lack of bureaucracy, business leaders attribute Estonia’s start-up ecosystem to a ground-up “pay it forward” effect that emerged organically from the private sector.
“Successful founders and early employees of companies such as Skype, Bolt, Wise and others have reinvested their capital, knowledge, and networks into the next generation of start-ups. This has created a strong cycle of mentorship and early-stage investment,” Ratnik said.

LightCode Photonics, which is also exploring deepening collaboration with Singapore, is one company that has benefited from such a cycle of mentorship and investments in the unicorn ecosystem, says the Estonian firm’s co-founder Terje Eichelmann.
“It’s not just financial capital – they bring experience, networks and a strong sense of responsibility to pay it forward,” she said. “It’s also quite normal socially – many people know someone who has worked at or built a start-up. That lowers the psychological barrier significantly.”
Eichelmann cited her own experience of moving from a secure corporate role to a start-up.
“In my case, the opportunity to build something meaningful and to be closer to innovation outweighed those risks. Estonia’s relatively supportive ecosystem, including access to experienced founders and investors, also makes that leap feel more manageable,” she said.

The Estonian government has also been proactive in creating an environment conducive to growing start-ups.
Ratnik points to initiatives such as transparent regulation, digital infrastructure and founder-friendly policies to reduce administrative burdens and allow entrepreneurs to focus on building their businesses.
She also cites the importance of support programmes and internationalisation efforts to help Estonian companies connect with global markets like Singapore.
“Singapore plays a key role as a trusted partner and bridge for Estonia in the region. We are keen to further strengthen institutional cooperation, support business-to-business links, and encourage more Estonian companies to explore opportunities in Southeast Asia,” she said.
For Kotkas, while his unicorn company is raring to go in the region, he is well aware it takes time to work with regulators in each market.
“We are in a trust business that also takes time to build up their trusting relationships before you can lean in harder,” he said.
“We are in a trust business [and] it takes step-by-step expansion.”


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Estonian start-ups are targeting Singapore as the prime spot for their regional headquarters. Photo: AFP/Getty Images/TNS

Veriff is one of at least 10 unicorn companies in Estonia. Photo illustration: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

LightCode Photonics co-founder Terje Eichelmann. Photo: Ivo Panasyuk

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Veriff and other unicorn companies are targeting Singapore for their regional headquarters, citing similarities in digital advancement


Veriff and other unicorn companies are targeting Singapore for their regional headquarters, citing similarities in digital advancement.


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Estonian start-ups eye Singapore as ‘natural gateway’ to build digital trust in Asean

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Veriff and other unicorn companies are targeting Singapore for their regional headquarters, citing similarities in digital advancement

Veriff and other unicorn companies are targeting Singapore for their regional headquarters, citing similarities in digital advancement