Datakeeper is setting the standard for digital identity in the Netherlands. An ambition that can only be realised if not just the technology is right, but the financial foundation is too. We spoke with statutory director Vincent Kolijn and managing director Bart Vloet of Datakeeper. A conversation about gaining control, staying realistic, and being ready for the moment the market truly starts to move.
“We tend to already be living in the future, while reality still has to catch up. Frédérique keeps us sharp on that.” – Bart Vloet – Datakeeper
Datakeeper: privacy-first ID wallet with European ambitions
Datakeeper is an ID wallet that enables consumers to securely retrieve personal data from trusted sources such as the Dutch Tax Authority, the UWV, MijnPensioenFonds.nl, and the Municipal Records Database (BRP). Only the data points strictly necessary for a specific transaction are shared. No cloud storage, no copies left sitting on a server. The data stays local on the user’s phone.
“If a company wants to know whether you’re 18 or older, it gets a check mark,” Bart explains. “Not your date of birth. And if someone wants to verify your income, you don’t share a pay slip. Instead you share a validated data point directly from the source.”
Datakeeper is now certified as a source data provider on the HDN (Mortgage Data Network) and Rabobank has integrated the wallet as the first mortgage lender in its client process, where 45% of mortgage applicants are already using it.
The financial challenge of a fast-growing deep tech company
Datakeeper began in 2017 as a blockchain experiment within Rabobank. After years of development, the conclusion was clear: this has potential as an independent company. And a bank is not the right party to accelerate a scale-up.
The spin-out brought freedom, but also immediate pressure. Datakeeper had to operate as an independent company while simultaneously setting up an M&A process, all while the product was still in active development and the first clients had yet to be won. The ambition was clear: triple revenue within two years, not by scaling headcount rapidly, but by driving more transactions on a stable cost base.
“Suddenly we had to set up the financial structure, processes, and growth planning ourselves,” says Bart. “While also building a product and winning clients.”
A full-time CFO was not realistic at that point: too expensive, and the workload didn’t yet justify it. But continuing to build without financial direction wasn’t an option either. The choice to bring in a fractional CFO through Greyt was therefore as pragmatic as it was strategic: immediately deployable expertise at exactly the level Datakeeper needed, without the overhead of a permanent hire.
The financial foundation as a critical starting point
Greyt was brought in at the moment of the spin-out. Not as a complement to an existing finance function, but as the finance function itself. Ralf van den Berg, the first Greyt CFO to step in, got to work with focus and precision: bookkeeping, insurance, administration, annual plan, and reporting structure towards Rabobank as shareholder were all put firmly in place. The financial foundation from which Datakeeper could start building.
As the M&A agenda became more concrete, Frédérique Baumann joined as Greyt CFO. With a background in M&A from her years in transaction services, she brought exactly the expertise Datakeeper needed at that stage. And because the foundation was solid, she could hit the ground running. “That meant I could immediately focus on the M&A agenda and on translating strategy into a financially viable plan,” says Frédérique. You can’t convince an investor with messy bookkeeping, and you can’t build a growth plan without knowing where you truly stand. Precisely because that foundation was of strong quality, it was possible to move quickly in a phase where speed is everything.
A fractional CFO as a strategic link
Many companies at this stage fall through the cracks: too large for an accounting firm, too small for a full-time CFO. For Datakeeper, that meant needing someone involved enough to understand the context, yet distant enough from day-to-day operations not to develop tunnel vision.
That is exactly what Frédérique brings. She oversees financial management, guides due diligence preparation, and contributes to M&A strategy. But her real value lies in the combination of proximity and distance. “We tend to already be living in the future,” says Bart. “Deals that don’t exist yet, people not yet hired… We already factor them in. But Frédérique keeps us grounded with fact-based steering.”
That became concrete during the last annual planning cycle, which was filled with ambitious scenarios. Frédérique delivered the reality check. “Sometimes you have to be unpopular,” she says. “But that’s exactly what’s needed to steer effectively.”
It is precisely that combination of strategic thinking and operational follow-through that makes the difference for a company that wants to grow ambitiously but doesn’t yet have the full organisation to do so. Not despite the fractional model, but because of it.
“Sometimes you have to be unpopular to steer effectively.” – Frédérique Baumann – Greyt
Ready before the market moves
European regulation around digital identity (eIDAS2) requires governments to offer ID wallets and financial institutions to accept them which makes the market Datakeeper has been building for years suddenly far more concrete. Major Dutch organisations are working on a shared standard for digital identification, and Datakeeper intends to play a defining role in it.
To be ready for that moment, Greyt is actively supporting the preparation: sharpening the sales funnel and order book, getting the numbers ready for due diligence, and guiding communications with investors.
The results are tangible: the existing foundation has been developed into a sound, investor-ready financial base, with insight into the cost structure, a clear funnel, and reporting that stands up to due diligence scrutiny. Transaction figures show an upward trend, and the ambition to triple revenue within two years shapes every financial decision being made today.
“That the back office grows professionally alongside us while we build the company,” says Bart, “is exactly what we need.”
Finance as a foundation, not an afterthought
What started with laying a solid base grew into strategic guidance precisely when it was needed. For Datakeeper, that now means: numbers that hold up under investor scrutiny, a team that steers on facts rather than assumptions, and a position to seize market timing when it arrives.
“It really helps to have someone alongside us who thinks both hands-on and strategically,” Bart concludes. “Not just to have the numbers in order, but to truly be ready for the next growth phase.”
