ForgeRock, Sun Microsystems co-founders launch IndyKite for open-source Web3 identity layer

Two tech leaders have teamed up to launch a startup creating a digital identity layer for people, devices and machines as the web continues to evolve. ForgeRock Co-founder Lasse Andresen has launched IndyKite, with Sun Microsystems Co-founder Scott McNealy as a formal advisor. The launch is backed by a $2.5 million pre-seed round co-led by Alliance Venture and Speedinvest. The company is now live with several capabilities available, including biometric identity verification. Digital wallet and cloud identity products are launching soon.

IndyKite’s approach is to provide an open-source technology based on knowledge graphs and machine learning to allow developers build organization-wide maps of every person, device and asset. As well as allowing authorization, the IndyKite Knowledge Graph platform will uncover contextual insights, allowing for ‘hyper-personalization.’ Biometric verification with ID document and a selfie for facial authentication is one of the five products the company website lists. Data shared is promised to be private, compliant and secure.

“The relationship graphs that emerged in the beginning of the social web taught us identity is contextual, making ‘relationship-based access control’ an elegant solution to an age-old security problem,” said Lasse Andresen, whose ForgeRock was recently valued at $2.8 billion after a $275 million IPO.

“In the near future, an IoT device could ‘learn’ its access controls directly from the network it connects to, without needing someone to manually configure its access controls. This intelligence can also be applied to improve human identity access controls.”

The platform will also allow organizations to become digital brokers of identity services, beyond traditional services such as finance and payments.

Early access for the Knowledge Graph begins on 11 November. This will be followed from 25 November with the EU launch of the pilot for digital wallet product IndyKite.me and cloud identity platform IndyKite.id. The wallet solution is aimed at organizations which want to allow individuals or customers to identify themselves or prove they have shared their personal information. It can be used on and offline, for public and private services across the EU. IndyKite is positioning itself for the arrival of digital wallets in the EU with a readymade toolkit.

“No one has an identity on the Internet except what is created by governments or inside those private social databases. I want to own my digital identity,” said Scott McNealy, Sun Microsystems co-founder and formal advisor to IndyKite. “IndyKite will help me keep control of who uses it, and how.”

IndyKite has formed a partnership with RealNetworks and SAFR for computer vision capabilities. “RealNetworks’ visual intelligence technology specializes in face- and person-based computer vision, so there’s real value in partnering with an identity focused company like IndyKite,” said Andresen.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  computer vision  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  ForgeRock  |  identity verification  |  IndyKite  |  IoT  |  open source  |  personalization  |  RealNetworks  |  SAFR  |  startup  |  web3