ISCN

What ISCN does

ISCN (International Standard Certificate Number) is a non-profit, privately operated certificate accreditation and verification platform founded in 2013 and run under the International Standards Establishment (ISE). The company assigns a unique 25-digit alphanumeric code — composed of country code, sector (EDU/GOV/COM/SRV/ORG), certificate type, year, establishment ID, and an 8-character searchable string — to formal certificates and professional documents globally, with QR code support for instant verification. ISCN also issues a 4-character Verified Establishment ID (EST ID) to organizations, and offers two add-on gateways: a Verification Gateway for automated document authenticity checks (available via API), and an Evaluation Gateway for creating internationally certified evaluations. The technical foundation is a cloud-based protected database with bank-level security, disaster protection, and periodic backups; servers are located in the United States.

ISCN's business model is entirely self-serve and digital. Individual certificate holders pay a one-time $110 fee for the Basic Plan, while establishments subscribe to one of several annual tiers ranging from $80 to $180 per year, with the higher tiers unlocking the Verification Gateway and Evaluation Gateway modules. A separate transaction-fee model applies when a verification is attempted on a non-eligible (forged) certificate: the user pays $100 and receives $65 back. Distribution is web- and mobile-based (iOS and Android apps), with a family of related ISE websites (intlstandards.org, estid.org, verifiedphd.org, verifiedtrainer.org, verifiedevent.org) supporting organic search across credential niches. The company reports operational reach across 120+ countries and 7,000+ locations, with no named enterprise customers, no disclosed sales team, no external funding rounds, and no public revenue figures. The stated customer base spans educational institutions, commercial establishments, government bodies, evaluative foundations, HR/employers, and individual certificate holders.

Commercially, ISCN operates as a low-cost, high-distribution utility rather than a high-ARPU enterprise platform. Pricing is set at the consumer/SMB level (sub-$200/year for organizations), no institutional investors or M&A activity are disclosed, and the entity is structured as a non-profit, with governing law referenced as England and Wales. Headcount is stated at 101-250 employees, servers are in the US, and the website copyright dates to 2018. The model is fundamentally a registry-and-verification utility: it monetizes primarily through volume of low-value transactions and annual subscriptions from a long tail of small establishments and individual users, rather than concentrated enterprise contracts.

Name

ISCN

Legal name

International Standards Establishment (ISE)

Website

https://iscnsystem.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2013

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

ISCN (International Standards Establishment) operates a global certificate accreditation platform that assigns unique 25-digit codes to formal documents for forgery prevention, serving educational institutions, organizations, governments, and individual certificate holders across 120+ countries via self-serve web and mobile channels.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Certificate Verification and Credential Accreditation

NAICS

Testing Laboratories and Services (541380), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Services-Membership Organizations (8600), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Fraud Prevention & Identity Verification (IDV/KYC) (BPAMAEAI)

akta.pro secondary industries

Identity Verification & Proofing (IDV, KYC, Biometrics) (HDADAAAF), Identity Verification, Proofing & KYC (IDV) (HDAEAJAI), Data, Evidence & Document Verification (IDV) for KYC (FSAMAMAN)

Keywords

• Certificate verification platform
• Credential accreditation services
• Document forgery prevention
• International identification codes
• Establishment identity verification

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. ISCN Basic Plan - Individual Certificate Registration: Individual users pay $110 for a Basic Plan that includes international identity, descriptive data of certificates, global reliability, anti-counterfeiting, data flow facilitation, protected electronic copy, improved HR management, short clear definitions, and protection of documents from damage and loss.
2. EST ID Plan 1 - International Verified Establishment ID: Plan 1 at $80 per year provides International Verified EST ID, excluding Verification Gateway, Evaluation Gateway, and ISCN System access. Number of years is configurable.
3. EST ID Plan 2 - Verification Gateway: Plan 2 at $120 per year provides access to the Verification Gateway, which enables secure online certificate and document verification processes for establishments and individuals.
4. EST ID Plan 3 - Evaluation Gateway: Plan 3 at $120 per year provides access to the Evaluation Gateway, allowing establishment owners to create internationally certified evaluations.
5. EST ID Plan 5: Plan 5 at $150 per year.
6. EST ID Plan 6: Plan 6 at $180 per year.
7. ISCN Verification Fee: If a certificate is not eligible for verification (e.g., it is fake), the user loses the $100 used for verification, but receives back $65 for support, maintenance, and service. This indicates a per-verification transaction fee model.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

ISCN provides a global certificate accreditation and verification system that assigns unique 25-digit International Standard Certificate Numbers to formal certificates and professional documents worldwide. The platform combines a proprietary coding system with QR code integration, enabling instant verification, bank-level secure storage, and prevention of forgery. Complementing the core system is the EST ID establishment identification service, Verification Gateway, and Evaluation Gateway for organizations.

Product overview

ISCN (International Standard Certificate Number) is a platform providing certificate accreditation and verification services. The core offering is the ISCN System, which assigns unique 25-digit codes to certificates and documents for global verification. This is complemented by the Verified Establishment ID (EST ID), a 4-digit establishment identification system. The platform offers two additional modules: the Verification Gateway for document authenticity verification between parties, and the Evaluation Gateway for quality assessment services. Pricing includes individual certificate registration at $110 and establishment ID plans ranging from $80-$180.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• ISCN System: International Standard Certificate Number system for global certificate accreditation and verification.

Products and services

• ISCN System
• Verified Establishment ID (EST ID)

Quantifiable outcome

• Certificates verified through ISCN are protected from forgery through independent third-party verification before code assignment
• +1 more outcomes

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature7 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Coursera: Large online learning platform that issues employer-recognized certificates and credentials for completed courses. Comparable to ISCN as a credential issuer and verifier at massive scale, though operating in a broader education rather than pure verification market.

Regional players

• DigiLocker: Indian government-issued digital document wallet that provides verifiable digital copies of government and educational documents. Comparable to ISCN's digital certificate issuance and verification model but operated as a sovereign national platform.

Direct peers

• Parchment (Instructure): A leading academic credential verification and electronic transcript exchange platform serving universities and learners globally. Directly comparable to ISCN because both digitize and verify educational credentials to prevent fraud and enable cross-institutional verification.
• Credly (Pearson): Digital credentialing platform that issues and verifies digital badges and certificates for education and workforce skills. Comparable to ISCN because it assigns unique verifiable identifiers to certificates and serves both issuers and verifiers.
• Onfido: AI-based digital identity verification provider used by global enterprises for onboarding and fraud prevention. Comparable to ISCN's verification and identity-proofing functions for individuals and establishments.
• Digitary: Provider of digital academic records and credential verification used by universities and employers, primarily in Australia, Europe, and the Middle East. Comparable to ISCN's certificate accreditation and verifiable digital document model.
• National Student Clearinghouse: U.S.-focused degree verification and education data infrastructure provider used by employers and universities. Comparable to ISCN as a centralized credential verification registry serving institutions, employers, and verifiers.
• ID.me: Digital identity verification network used by U.S. government agencies and enterprises to verify individuals' identities at scale. Comparable to ISCN because it builds a two-sided issuer-verifier identity network focused on fraud prevention.
• Veriff: Identity verification platform that verifies individuals via document and biometric checks, heavily used for KYC and fraud prevention. Comparable to ISCN's verification gateway and document anti-fraud workflow.

Emerging players

• Blockcerts (Learning Machine / Hyland Credentials): Open-standard blockchain-based credentialing platform that issues and verifies tamper-proof digital certificates. Comparable to ISCN as a competing approach to verifiable digital credentials, particularly in education.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks7 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/iscnsystem
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/international-standard-certificate-number

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about ISCN