Biometrics veteran’s startup raises $2.4M for reimagined payment authentication

Kansas, U.S.-based payment authentication startup Ideem has raised $2.4 million in seed funding to scale its partnerships in digitizing markets and help ecommerce platforms trade friction for user trust.

The funding round was led by Sovereign’s Capital, Quona Capital, Everywhere Ventures, Hustle Fund, Oread Angels, Network Kansas and angel investors, Co-founder and CEO Toby Rush reveled in a blog post.

Rush is a familiar name in the biometrics industry from his time as CEO of EyeVerify, which was acquired by Ant Financial in 2016 and subsequently rebranded as Zoloz.

“EyeVerify, definitely, helped me understand the flow, biometrics, identity, all those pieces,” Rush told Startland News.

He says that Ideem’s investors understand the emerging markets the company is pursuing, “and these are very smart, very connected supporters of ours that believe in what we’re doing, understand the problem statement, and will help us execute.” They have offices and investments in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Singapore.

Entrepreneurial support organization Endeavor helped make some of those connections.

Ideem provides one-click checkouts for digital wallets, pay-by-bank and BNPL (buy now pay later) transactions through its Zero-Trust Secure Module (ZSM). It is designed to address pain points with traditional two-factor authentication (2FA), which Rush says are even worse in emerging markets.

Rush characterizes the ZSM as a piece of software that turns the phone into a hardware authenticator with cryptographic binding for seamless instant transactions. It also gives payment services the visibility and communications capabilities to address errors, according to a company announcement.

The company was founded last August by Rush, along with Co-founders Maranda Manning, Greg Storm and Tim Massey, after spinning out of another startup Rush was involved with, TripleBlind.

He explains that TripleBlind was asked to address a specific problem by a “Top 5 global bank,” and realized that a separate company and product were needed to tackle the issue. This essentially makes the big bank a two-year design partner of Ideem. Along with a global rollout by that bank customer, multiple early customers in Southeast Asia have signed on.

“In the markets where Quona invests, mobile-first commerce is growing rapidly, but authentication and checkout friction remain stubborn barriers to scale,” said Monica Brand Engel, Managing Partner at Quona Capital. “Ideem’s solution is purpose-built for these environments, replacing outdated methods with a fast, seamless, and secure experience that helps platforms convert more users and build trust at scale. We believe Ideem is positioned to become a critical part of the payments infrastructure in these ecosystems.”

Article Topics

biometric authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  digital wallets  |  Ideem  |  investment  |  startup  |  Toby Rush