ID.me, VIDA announce funding to fuel continued digital ID growth

ID.me has secured $100 million in debt financing from funds managed by Fortress Investment Group LLC affiliates, along with an additional $20 million in revolving credit.

The funding will be used by ID.me to support the continuation of its rapid growth, and to support the development of its digital identity network for all consumers, according to a company announcement.

The company has also recently added Rajat Bahri as CFO, Kevin Lyons as chief people officer, and authentication expert Alexei Czeskis as its new VP of Engineering.

ID.me announced the launch of its COVID Vaccine ID in August, and it has recently reached two blanket purchase agreements with two government agencies reported to potentially be worth over $1 billion each.

“One of our missions for the past year has been to help states get individuals the benefits they deserve while battling massive identity fraud,” says Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me. “Now, with this new financing, we can double down on our corporate vision to solve every digital citizen’s biggest pain point — the multiple password problem. We’re passionate about enabling people to have one trusted login that securely verifies their identity, so they don’t have to create a new password for every website they visit. Not only are we streamlining an inefficient process, but we’re also giving individuals full control of their personal data, which is currently scooped up by data brokers. In short, we’re creating the identity layer of the internet.”

Over the past year, ID.me has signed up or expanded agreements with 6 federal and 27 state agencies for its digital ID services, and boosted its revenue from hospitality and travel by 420 percent.

VIDA plans expansion with new funding

Digital identity solutions provider VIDA (an acronym for ‘Verified Identity for All’) has announced it has raised new funds from Jungle Ventures, Alpha JWC Ventures and Monk’s Hill Ventures which will aid the Indonesian-based digital identity startup to expand its technological efforts, as well as go-to-market functions.

The firm also intends to use the funds to grow its presence in various industries, including fintech, banking, insurance, and healthcare.

According to the firm, the move comes at a perfect time, as roughly 190 million adults in Indonesia require digital security solutions to protect their identities.

VIDA aims to deliver such services, using biometrics, machine learning and computer vision technologies.

“Identity verification underpins every digital transaction,” explained the firm’s founder and executive chairman, Niki Luhur.

“We leverage our expertise in cybersecurity to build products that fundamentally change the user experience of all digital platforms and products.”

VIDA has reportedly been working on a series of use cases since its inception in 2018.

These included initiatives to enable frictionless mobility, solutions to deliver a secure and flexible work environment, and user-friendly applications for digital ID verification.

“VIDA aims to create frictionless access to financial services, as well as provide health certificates to help safely reopen the Indonesian economy during this pandemic,” Luhur concluded.

Citi Ventures and Goldman Sachs participate in Transmit Security’s Series A funding round

The $543 million investment round was first announced in June, led by Insight Partners and General Atlantic, and with participation from Cyberstarts, Geodesic, SYN Ventures, Vintage, and Artisanal Ventures.

Now, Citi Ventures and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have confirmed they are also participants in Transmit Security’s Series A funding round.

The funding round reportedly brings the company evaluation to $2.2 billion and will see Transmit Security ramp up its efforts in increasing its global reach and replace passwords with passwordless, biometric authentication.

“Our approach to passwordless authentication increases security while also making things easier for individuals, who no longer have to authenticate their identity multiple times on different devices or reset forgotten passwords to gain access,” commented Transmit Security CEO and Co-founder Mickey Boodaei.

“That means our customers can focus on their core business instead of having to solve security and authentication problems.”

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  funding  |  ID.me  |  investment  |  Transmit Security  |  VIDA