Identity Management is Crucial to the Online Marketplace Today

Venture investments in Identity Management has hit new levels.

Companies relying on outdated tools, vulnerable passwords make difficult for themselves to identify their customers and employees on a network. Such vulnerability can sell the business to the dark web.

Since so many years, experts and researchers have been working on better ways to identify and authenticate people.

2021 saw about $3.2 billion in venture money go straight into identity management platforms. The figure is approximately double the investment of the year before, which was also a record.

1. Incode Technologies

San Francisco based real-life verification company, Incode Technologies, announced its total valuation as $1.25 billion after $220 million series B funding in the early week of December 2021.

With this funding the tech company hit its unicorn status. The funding happened within seven months of its $25 million series A round, and that is quite an achievement.

2. Socure

Socure, one of the topmost providers of digital identity verification and fraud solutions closed a venture deal at $450m round taking the platforms valuation at $4.5 billion.

Socure achieved this only within seven months of its $1.3 B series D investment round. This has earned the company the tag of highest valuation for any private company in identity verification space.

The reason may be the increased demand from companies to go digital and prevent online fraud.

3. SecZetta

A leading provider of third-party identity risk solutions, SecZetta announced an oversubscribed $20.5 m series B funding round in October 2021.

SYN Ventures along with new investor MassMutual Venture led the round, which also included the participation of investors Rally Ventures and ClearSky. SecZetta offers assured and easy-to-use purpose-built solutions to address security issues. The investments will be further used to bolster its customer roster and develop more features to provide continuous support in the market.

4. Persona

Persona INC closed $150 m Series C funding and took its total valuation to $1.5 billion in September, 2021.

Along with Founders funds, Mertitech Capital Partners, BOND, Coatue Management and BOND showed their participation. This investment came within 6 months of the companies $50M Series B funding. Such short frame of investments prove that Persona experienced rapid growth.

5. ID.me

Digital identity network company ID.me successfully raised $100 million.

ID.me is a secure digital identity network with around 60 million members. The funds were secured in debt financing managed by affiliates of Fortress Investment Group LLC. Further funding round will happen in March in Company’s series C round, securing $100 M and taking the total valuation of the company at $1.5 Bn.

6. Smile Identity

In July, 2021, Smile Identity raised $7million, and the company used the funds to improve its services and expand across markets. Smile Identity is an African company, it offers identity verification and KYC compliance tools for African companies.

This Venture capital investment was led both by Costanoa Ventures along with pan-African venture CRE venture capital and other investor partners.

7. Trulioo

Trulioo is a Vancouver based identity tech startup, and the start-up raised $394 million in its Series D funding taking the valuation of the company to $1.75 billion.

Importance of Identity management in Online Workplace

In cybersecurity space, identity management authentication has been popular for years. Names like Ping Identity, Okta and ForgeRock has been helping businesses to manage employee identities. Things were normal until the Covid-19 pandemic pushed these companies to add more features and tools to manage hybrid workforce as employees were working from home.

Besides, the pandemic also helped to bolster the market for platforms to manage consumers through not only biometrics but also through document verification, password less tech and many more as people moved their lives online.

As businesses look forward to reduced frauds, secure access to credit expands, and there is a continuous proliferation of financial products, there is a need to expand the identity management and authentication industry. The identity management space has become more critical than ever amidst the rapid acceleration of digital technology during the past two years.

Final Word

The identity management industry is booming and with such huge investments, it is quite lucrative to try one’s hand here. We are hoping to see more such venture capital investments in 2022. Stay tuned for the latest updates!