TransferWise founder Taavet Hinrikus launches Covid testing service

LONDON – Taavet Hinrikus took over the financial services industry with an online platform for international money transfers. Its next target is the viral pandemic that has defined the last twelve months.

The co-founder of TransferWise on Wednesday launched a new start-up called Certific. Founded alongside other entrepreneurs Jack Kreindler and Liis Narusk, Hinrikus ’new company aims to enhance the experience of testing coronavirus remotely from home.

TransferWise “got a product 10 times better, which was cheaper and faster” than those offered by major banks and remittance companies, Hinrikus argued in a CNBC interview Tuesday.

The founders of TransferWise have taken the company from an advance in payments to a $ 5 million fintech giant in the last decade. It is rumored that the company is preparing an initial public offering for this year. TransferWise declined to comment on the stock market speculation.

“We were looking at the world of medical testing and it was a bit behind like financial services,” the Estonian-born businessman added.

“Where Ceritific comes in is that there’s a way to prove yourself in a reliable way that we believe is a 10 times better experience, similar to TransferWise,” Hinrikus said.

Certific is an application that verifies the identities of users and tells them how to test Covid-19, with trained doctors prepared to verify the test result and provide certification. It will only be launched on Wednesday to individuals and companies in the UK, but over time it will be launched in other countries.

Certific does not sell the evidence, but from a company called CHHP, founded by Kreindler. CHHP says it is accredited by the UKAS national accreditation body UKAS to offer Covid-19 testing.

The Certific test provider will initially sell polymerase chain reaction or PCR tests at £ 64 ($ 89) for savings. Customers send the test kits to a lab to determine the result and the certification is made available through the app the next day.

The certificate will soon also offer rapid antigen testing in packs of 12 which will cost £ 249. These last tests are said to produce a result in less than 90 minutes. The certificate earns revenue from a fee charged to customers for their test certificate.

Once a user takes the test and registers the result in the application, they will be given a digital certificate and a QR code containing information about the test result. The idea is that users can finally use these certificates for recreation or to travel abroad.

“Given that there is the right evidence that is applicable to the use case, you can use it while going to the movies, a concert, or a sporting event,” Narusk, CEO of Certific, told CNBC in a interview, and added that his platform is “agnostic proof.”

Certific says its service is “affordable” and “democratized.” However, Covid tests are already offered for free in the UK through the state-funded National Health Service. Most things are centralized in Britain in terms of health, from ambulance rides to complex surgery, all paid for by taxes.

Certific said it does not want to compete with the NHS, but will “complement its efforts” and provide all of its test data to the NHS England. The company hopes its platform can play a role in the UK Test to Release program for international travel, as well as in Test and Trace.

Hinrikus first set out to address ways to respond to the technology pandemic last year. A team of TransferWise engineers volunteered to develop so-called immunity passports to help people get back to work.

The idea was for someone to do an antibody test to show if they had contracted the virus recently and had some level of immunity. But experts warned that these certificates were unethical, as it is unclear whether antibody testing confers immunity to reinfection and there are fears that these virtual steps could violate people’s privacy.

“It turns out it was a bit of a dead end, as we still don’t know that much about immunity,” Hinrikus said.

The next step for Certific would be to add user vaccination status to the app, now that safe and efficient coronavirus vaccines are being rolled out around the world. This could pave the way for vaccine passports to show that people have had it and are returning to work and play.

“Certified testing can play a big role,” Hinrikus said. “Obviously, it will need to be integrated with vaccine information and can be used in certain use cases, such as mass gatherings and anything else, where people who have been vaccinated or tested can go.”

But Kreindler is not interested in the term “immunity passport,” insisting they should refer to them as “vaccination certificates.” Regardless of what is called, the world’s leading companies are studying inoculation steps to help remove restrictions on public life.

The certificate is fully self-funded and Hinrikus says it has earmarked most of the money to put the service into operation. Asked if the company would take venture capital financing in the future, the co-founder of TransferWise said it would only do so if it needed “additional help” to expand globally.

As for Hinrikus ’role at TransferWise, the executive said he“ has been gradually moving away ”from day-to-day operations for some time, but remains the company’s chairman. He says he has also been active in angel investment and other technology initiatives.