Fraser Edwards, co-founder and CEO of cheqd.
Global B2B communications platform, VERA, has partnered with identity and credentials infrastructure provider, cheqd, to launch a secure, verifiable messaging platform for South African businesses, aimed at combating escalating cyber threats, particularly phishing and business e-mail compromise (BEC) attacks.
Founded in 2024, VERA integrates advanced encryption, identity verification and role-based access control to enable the issuance, storage and verification of digital credentials. The partnership with cheqd – an infrastructure designed for verifiable AI, digital credentials and electronic identification – marks a strategic move to build a trust-centric communications ecosystem for businesses on the continent.
“Cyber criminals globally send an estimated 3.4 billion phishing e-mails daily – over 1 trillion each year,” said Fraser Edwards, co-founder and CEO of cheqd. “South Africa, in particular, faces a severe threat landscape.”
In May 2025, Sergey Lozhkin, head of global research for the APAC and META regions at Kaspersky, revealed that 17.5% of South African internet users – approximately 8.75 million people – faced online threats in Q1 2025. These included malware, phishing, botnets and other cyber attacks.
Earlier data from July 2024 by Check Point Research found that Africa had the highest average weekly cyber attacks per organisation worldwide in Q2 2024, with 2 960 attacks – up 37% from the previous year.
While ransomware attacks in Africa declined by 55% year on year in Q2 2024, phishing remains the dominant attack vector. According to the Interpol Africa Cyberthreat Assessment Report 2024, phishing e-mails were responsible for BEC incidents in 80% of African countries, ranking among the top three cyber threats alongside ransomware and scams.
“Despite encryption tools in use today, most messaging platforms cannot verify a sender’s true digital identity,” Edwards added. “That’s a major vulnerability we aim to solve.
Limitations of current messaging systems
Max Coleman, co-founder of VERA, highlighted that conventional e-mail protocols such as SMTP were not built with sender authentication in mind – making spoofing and impersonation widespread. Even modern communication apps like WhatsApp and Signal authenticate users only via phone numbers or usernames, which lack legal verification.
“Even platforms like Keybase, which link digital identities to social profiles, don’t meet the threshold for legally verifiable communications,” Coleman said. “Legal entity identifiers and domain-based verification are helpful in finance, but don’t scale to everyday B2B messaging.”
According to Coleman, no existing mainstream platform currently combines secure communication with government-backed digital identity verification tailored to high-stakes business use.
Government and banking-grade ID verification
To address this, VERA integrates with trusted third-party identity verification services that access government and corporate registries, including the South African Department of Home Affairs for biometric and identity confirmation and the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission for verified business and director information.
Through these integrations, VERA validates company registrations, retrieves full director listings and ensures the onboarding individual is an authorised representative, creating a multi-layered trust framework.
“Only authenticated and verified entities can operate within the VERA ecosystem,” Edwards said.
As of 1 June, VERA has launched a beta version of its platform, targeting South African businesses in sectors such as construction and legal services. A full market release is planned for August.
The company reports 27 businesses on its waiting list and anticipates strong uptake from procurement, supply chain and compliance-intensive sectors – where the authenticity of digital relationships and documentation is paramount.
“In high-trust environments, verified messaging is no longer optional, it’s critical infrastructure,” Coleman said.
