Stripe alumni raise €30M Series A for Duna, backed by Stripe and Adyen execs

Anthropic and OpenAI whitethorn beryllium rivals, but their presidents Daniela Amodei and Gregory Brockman person 1 happening successful common: they are some Stripe alumni. With erstwhile employees who went connected to make dozens of startups, the fintech institution has go 1 of the astir prolific “founder factories” — and the wealth is following. The latest example: concern individuality verification startup Duna, which conscionable raised a €30 cardinal Series A to go the best-funded European subordinate of the alleged “Stripe mafia.” The backing circular was led by Alphabet’s maturation money CapitalG, which has besides backed Stripe since co-leading its Series D successful 2016.

Based successful Germany and the Netherlands, Duna was cofounded by Stripe alumni Duco Van Lanschot and David Schreiber. With customers including Plaid, the startup helps fintech companies onboard concern customers much efficiently, reducing the emblematic churn associated with firm ID checks and different fraud prevention measures.

Stripe is not a lawsuit of Duna, Van Lanschot said, but its executives were good placed to recognize the accidental that the startup is seizing, which is reflected successful its headdress table. The company’s angel investors see existent Stripe COO Michael Coogan and erstwhile executives David Singleton (CTO) and Claire Hughes Johnson (COO). Even Stripe rival Adyen got involved, with CRCO Mariëtte Swart and CFO Ethan Tandowsky joining arsenic angels.

Their endorsements besides validate Van Lanschot’s hunch that these companies won’t vie with Duna, adjacent though they could. “It requires specified fine-grained controls that alteration connected a company-by-company basis, that an Adyen oregon a Stripe isn’t going to rotation retired their concern onboarding arsenic a abstracted merchandise wherever different endeavor lawsuit tin alteration each of the configurations,” helium told TechCrunch.

If it’s inactive worthy the effort for Duna, it’s due to the fact that the startup is going aft the agelong process of endeavor clients that don’t person immense resources to dedicate to concern onboarding. But it’s besides due to the fact that its imaginativeness doesn’t halt there: Duna’s ambition is to physique a web that allows companies to reuse their verified individuality accusation crossed aggregate platforms.

“What we privation to physique implicit clip is simply a planetary spot infrastructure wherever we supply a integer passport for each business. So you tin reuse your record from onboarding connected [German walk absorption platform] Moss to onboard with Plaid, oregon you tin reuse it to unfastened up a slope account,” Van Lanschot said. 

This extremity resonated with Alex Nichols, the wide spouse who led CapitalG’s concern into the Series A. “I would accidental the communal happening I look for successful my investments are immoderate benignant of web effects, oregon much ceremonial standard advantage,” helium told TechCrunch. “I besides emotion it erstwhile founders person an earned penetration astir a occupation they whitethorn not known astir otherwise, and this is simply a precise bully illustration of that,” helium added.

Duna has competitors successful the class known arsenic KYB, oregon Know Your Business. This includes vendors specified arsenic Jumio and Veriff. But for Nichols, what sets Duna isolated is its determination to make its ain data, alternatively than trying to aggregate existing information sources that are often lacking. “It’s the uncommon accidental to rebuild thing arsenic foundational arsenic a Visa and make an astonishing concern successful the process.”

Duna says it has already recovered a beardown concern lawsuit successful helping customers onboard firm users faster and cheaper. This besides explains wherefore existing investors are doubling down: Index Ventures, which led Duna’s €10.7 cardinal effect round successful May 2025, participated successful the Series A, arsenic did Puzzle Ventures and Snowflake president Frank Slootman. But the startup’s bigger ambition won’t wage disconnected until Duna reaches important scale. So the institution is looking for shortcuts.

How so? Van Lanschot and the Duna squad are identifying tiny clusters of companies that already overlap with each other—what they telephone “patches of networks.” These see manufacturing companies with shared customers, concern firms with overlapping LPs, oregon companies successful the aforesaid tiny country. In these tight-knit groups, the quality to reuse verification becomes invaluable immediately, adjacent earlier Duna achieves afloat web effects.

The countries whitethorn beryllium small, but the accidental is big, Van Lanschot said. “In the Netherlands unsocial — a tiny, tiny state — the 4 biggest banks employment 14,000 radical successful compliance, and fractional of them are moving connected businesses.” Duna won’t afloat regenerate these jobs yet, but AI automation tin prevention costs and make gross adjacent earlier the web effects footwear in.

If Duna yet provides the rails for an individuality network, determination mightiness beryllium an adjacent bigger accidental successful taking vantage of this presumption to alteration one-click concern onboarding. This would marque it akin to Amazon’s one-click checkout — oregon person to B2B, to Stripe Link. Once again with Duna, the Stripe transportation is ne'er truly far.