Janer Gorohhov

Invests in

AI & Machine LearningClimate TechCloud ComputingEnterprise SoftwareFuture of WorkMarketplaces

Investments

Per curated public sources.

Frequently asked questions

Is Janer Gorohhov still operating Veriff?

No. He stepped down as CPO and left day-to-day operations on 8 January 2024. He remains publicly identified as a Veriff co-founder, while Veriff appointed Suvrat Joshi CPO and Hubert Behaghel CTO later that month.

Did Gorohhov found Veriff in 2015?

Not in the same sense as Kaarel Kotkas. Veriff says it was established on 20 October 2015 and identifies Kotkas as founder and CEO. Gorohhov saw the early Inbank product, joined in November 2016 and became the operating co-founder. The dossier preserves both the company origin and his recognized co-founder title.

What was the role division between Gorohhov and Kotkas?

Kotkas supplied the original identity-verification vision and remained CEO and principal strategist. Gorohhov became the broad execution partner: first COO across operations, legal, HR and parts of revenue, then CPO across product and engineering, while also acting as a second public face and strategic-customer executive.

What product achievements can reasonably be attributed to him?

Attribution should be to his product leadership, not solo invention. His 2020 review documents faster and more automated decisions, Assisted Image Capture, risk APIs, biometric document scanning and lighter SDKs; subsequent company releases under his CPO tenure added AML monitoring, biometric authentication and age estimation.

Why did he leave Veriff?

His public explanation was planned founder handover, not a reported dispute: he said his pattern was to fix a function, recruit leaders better suited to scale it and move on. He also had taken parental leave and wanted time to reflect before another building cycle. No more specific independently verified cause was found.

What is he building now?

He is CEO and co-founder of Roleo, a Tallinn AI career-agent service operated by Cataloop OÜ. It scans jobs, supports anonymous matching and aims to move suitable technology candidates directly toward hiring-manager conversations instead of mass applications.

Which investments are independently documented?

Deal or company sources name him in Woola's 2021 €2.5 million seed, Askel.ai's 2024 €380,000 pre-seed, Qminder's 2024 €3 million round and Handhold's 2026 €3 million seed. These are total round sizes, not his checks. Yaga and Plural Platform are self-disclosed but lack public deal-level terms tying him to a date.

Are Veriff's investors part of Gorohhov's personal portfolio?

No. Accel, IVP, Tiger Global, Alkeon, Y Combinator and others invested in Veriff. That company capitalization must not be represented as Gorohhov personally investing alongside or in those firms. His separate self-disclosed Plural Platform commitment is the only published fund-investment claim found.

Has he had a documented investment exit?

No realized angel exit or proceeds were found in reliable public sources. He did leave Seisuk Furniture's board and shareholder group in 2018, but public records do not disclose consideration, so this is treated as a founder divestment rather than evidence of an investment return.

What boards does he serve on?

The material external governance role found is chairman of Salv Technologies' supervisory board from September 2025. He is also a management-board member of Roleo operator Cataloop, Micropreneur and Kapitalikasv; those are founder, holding or property-company governance roles rather than evidence of a broad independent-director practice.

What awards has he personally received?

No authoritative individual award was found. Veriff won team/company recognitions that Gorohhov celebrated publicly, including Estonia's 2020 B2B SaaS Startup of the Year, but those should not be converted into a personal honor.

Who is Janer Gorohhov?

Janer Gorohhov is a software-engineer-turned-operator who joined Kaarel Kotkas in 2016, after Veriff's 2015 establishment and first product, and became its co-founder and operational counterpart. He spent about seven years moving from COO responsibility across operations, legal, people and parts of revenue into CPO leadership of product and engineering. During that span Veriff entered Y Combinator, automated and broadened its identity-verification platform, grew internationally and raised a $100 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. Gorohhov left day-to-day Veriff work in January 2024 after handing product and engineering to new leaders, took parental leave and an operating break, and now leads Roleo, an AI career-agent company legally operated by Cataloop OÜ. Public records also support a Salv supervisory-board chair role and a compact, mostly Estonian early-stage portfolio; deal-level evidence is materially narrower than his self-disclosed list.

Where does Janer Gorohhov work?

Janer Gorohhov is Co-founder of Veriff and Co-founder at Roleo.

What does Janer Gorohhov invest in?

Janer Gorohhov invests in AI & Machine Learning, Climate Tech, Cloud Computing, Enterprise Software, Future of Work, Marketplaces.