ID.me sets $1.8b valuation, lets employees and early investors sell shares

ID.me is gearing up for big financial moves in 2025, aiming for a valuation of US$1.8 billion in an internal selloff – an uptick from a $1.73 billion valuation from two years ago.

Bloomberg Business News Network reports that “people familiar with the situation” say the verification company is letting employees and early investors sell off shares as part of the deal with investors. Viking Global and CapitalG, along with new investor Ribbit Capital, are making a tender offer of $67 million to purchase shares until November 1.

The source also tells Bloomberg that ID.me, which posted $130 million in revenue in 2023, is preparing for an initial public offering next year if market conditions are favorable.

The company reached a milestone in August of this year, when it announced that it had verified over 60 million Americans to the federal standards for consumer authentication, allowing them to use the company’s digital wallet for identity verification at government, commercial or non-profit organizations that use ID.me.

In total, ID.me has enrolled more than 130 million users into its digital wallet program. It has partnerships with 15 federal agencies, 40 agencies in 30 states and over 600 retailers. Last month, it appointed a new chief technology officer in Scott Meyer, who has previous experience at Google and LinkedIn.

And the Virginia-based firm has made headway with government agencies, with the IRS and Veteran’s Affairs recently adopting ID.me as a streamlined login option. ID.me has its roots in military ID use cases; in a LinkedIn post from June, angel investor Richard Stroupe notes that the company was founded as TroopSwap, which “helped service members access exclusive discounts and benefits safely.”

Having grown from a $7.5 million company into what Stroupe calls “a $1.5 billion giant,” ID.me now aims to be the dominant digital identity and wallet system used by the majority of people. Per a release, “ID.me aims to be the last login Americans will ever have to manage and the last identity verification they will have to complete.”

Currently, it claims to be the only digital wallet that meets federal standards for “secure multi-factor authentication while offering online, video chat, and in-person options for identity verification at NIST IAL2.” The IAL2 standard for user authentication is required for online transactions with large U.S. government agencies including the IRS and Health and Human Services.

Login.gov was recently certified for IAL2 after upgrading with selfie biometrics.

ID.me, however, does not have a perfect record in Washington. Bloomberg notes that in 2022, a U.S. House committee accused the company of misleading officials and the public about the scope of unemployment insurance fraud during the pandemic.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  digital wallets  |  ID.me  |  identity verification