Google-Backed Duna Secures €30 Million to Revolutionise Business Identity
Amsterdam, Thursday 5 February 2026
On 5 February 2026, Duna raised €30 million led by Google’s CapitalG. By automating complex compliance checks, the Dutch fintech aims to replace manual paperwork with reusable digital business identities.
Accelerating Trust in the Digital Economy
The Series A funding round, finalised on 5 February 2026, was led by CapitalG, Alphabet’s independent growth fund, with additional participation from Index Ventures, Puzzle Ventures, and tech veteran Frank Slootman [1][2]. This latest injection of capital brings Duna’s total funding to approximately 40.7 million, following a successful €10.7 million seed round in 2025 [1][2]. The company, founded in 2023 by former Stripe executives Duco van Lanschot and David Schreiber, intends to utilise these funds to scale its digital identity platform, which is designed to streamline the often fragmented and manual verification processes that plague the financial sector [1].
Solving the Compliance Bottleneck
For financial institutions, the cost of trust is exorbitantly high. Co-founder Duco van Lanschot highlights that banks currently allocate between 10 and 20 per cent of their total operational costs solely to compliance and identity checks [1]. These manual procedures are not only expensive but also act as a significant drag on business velocity. Alex Nichols, a partner at CapitalG, describes the current state of manual document exchange as a ‘hidden brake’ on the B2B economy [1]. Duna’s platform addresses this by creating reusable business identities, purportedly allowing organisations to onboard corporate clients up to ten times faster while strictly adhering to regulatory standards [1]. Current clients already leveraging this infrastructure include major players such as Plaid, CCV, and Brand New Day Bank [1].
Deep Tech in the ‘Silicon Polder’
Duna’s ascent reflects the broader maturation of the Dutch technology sector in 2026, which is increasingly rebranding itself as the ‘Silicon Polder’ [3]. While the Brainport Eindhoven region dominates hardware and deep tech with giants like ASML, Amsterdam has firmly established itself as the capital for ‘Soft Tech’ and SaaS [3]. The city hosts a robust ecosystem including Adyen, Booking.com, and Mollie, supporting a highly skilled workforce where senior machine learning engineers command salaries between €95,000 and €135,000 [3]. Duna’s founders leverage this environment, combining their experience at Stripe to build an organisation capable of international operations—a factor CapitalG cited as key to their investment thesis [1].
Navigating AI and Regulation
As the digital economy expands, so does the complexity of fraud, exacerbated by the rise of artificial intelligence. Co-founder David Schreiber notes that while AI offers opportunities, it also accelerates the scale of fraudulent activities, making secure, reusable identity frameworks more urgent than ever [1]. This focus on security is particularly pertinent in the Netherlands, which is noted as a strict enforcer of the EU AI Act 2026 [3]. Consequently, companies are increasingly investing in compliance and AI ethics teams to meet these rigorous standards [3]. By automating controls in a way that is demonstrably compliant with supervisory requirements, Duna aims to transform compliance from a hindrance into a scalable component of corporate growth [1].