VeryAI, a Proof of Reality platform that focuses on verifying human identifty in an AI-driven digital world, made the announcement today that it has secured a seed investment round of ten million dollars. Polychain Capital is the lead investor in this round, while Berggruen Institute and Anagram are also participating. Additionally, the financing coincides with the introduction of the business’s first product, which is a hardware-free palm scan verification system meant to address the rising hazards of AI-generated identities and deepfakes. This round represents the first time that the company has completed a capital raise.
Existing authentication methods, such as facial recognition, CAPTCHAs, and two-factor codes, are experiencing growing constraints as the generation of synthetic information gets more straightforward. The amount of time that it takes for attackers to penetrate systems has grown by 22 percent since 2023, with breaches now happening in an average of 48 minutes. This information comes from data collected by stakeholders in the industry.
The method that VeryAI employs is based on palm biometrics, which is a kind of identification that is not only very unique but also seldom disclosed to the general public. By using the camera of a smartphone, the system is able to acquire palm scans without the need for any specific gear. When it comes to validating a single hand, the business claims that their verification model has a false acceptance rate of around one in ten million. This is in contrast to the approximately one in one million rate that many face recognition systems have. It is estimated that the rate of false acceptance drops to around one in one hundred trillion when both hands are utilized.
“Privacy is a human right. But deepfakes and synthetic content present weaknesses that current systems simply can’t keep up with. VeryAI is restoring trust in identity verification by replacing outdated methods with solutions that are accurate, private and frictionless,” said Zach Meltzer, founder and CEO of VeryAI. “Having helped build identity solutions for millions of crypto users, from KYC and reputation scores to ZK Protocols and credential systems, I’ve seen both their value and their limits in the face of AI-driven fraud. VeryAI is building the future of identity verification.”
With its business-to-business (B2B) approach, VeryAI makes it possible for cryptocurrency exchanges, fintech businesses, and other platforms to include palm verification into their authentication systems. The company charges its partners depending on the number of monthly account verifications. The device is meant to function using the cameras included on regular smartphones, which makes identification verification more accessible to a wider audience.
VeryAI, which is built on Solana, is able to accurately record palm-scan identity registrations on the blockchain while taking advantage of the network’s rapid finality and cheap transaction costs. In addition to being a co-founder of Solana, Anatoly Yakovenko is also an angel investor in the project.
Both Zero Knowledge Proofs (ZKP) and the Solana Attestation Service (SAS) are used by the platform in order to provide support for privacy and interoperability. These technologies enable users to authenticate their identity across decentralized apps without disclosing any personal data associated with them. Additionally, VeryAI is using the ZK compression technique that is used by Light Protocol. This technology saves just the state roots on-chain, while verifying the compressed state off-chain. This allows VeryAI to cut storage costs while still ensuring security.
After the verification process is finished, the system will provide an identification that cannot be traced. This identifier will demonstrate that an activity took place without establishing a connection to a particular person. It has been said by the corporation that it does not preserve palm photos, but rather it keeps irreversible feature representations that cannot be rebuilt.
Chief Executive Officer Zach Meltzer, who was previously responsible for scaling Galxe to more than 6,000 partners and 34 million users while working on identity systems such as KYC frameworks and credential infrastructure, and Chief Science Officer Hua Yang, a researcher in palm biometrics who has more than 50 publications and patents, are both members of VeryAI’s leadership team.
“Every major platform, whether in finance, crypto, or social media, is grappling with the risks of AI-driven fraud,” said Olaf Carlson-Wee of Polychain Capital. “VeryAI’s palm verification technology closes that gap with accuracy, privacy and accessibility that no other biometric identity solution has yet to match. This is the foundation for a new standard of trust online.”
In addition, VeryAI has appointed Matthew Groh, who is currently serving as an assistant professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and Principal Investigator of the Human-AI Collaboration Lab, to the position of advisor. With the goal of enhancing human resistance to deepfakes and enhancing the identification of synthetic media, the business is beginning a research cooperation with the university.
VeryAI’s Proof of Reality platform will be expanded with the financing, and more tools will be developed to differentiate between identities produced by artificial intelligence and those established by human users who can be verified.
