附近上门

Identifying customers and employees on a network has always been a difficult thing for companies, often relying on outdated, vulnerable passwords that can be bought and sold on the dark web.

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Figuring out better ways to ID and authenticate people is something security experts have been working on for decades鈥攁nd while new methods are seeing slow adoption, they are realizing large dollar investment from venture capitalists.

This year has already seen $3.2 billion in venture dollars go into the identity management space鈥攁bout 2.5x the amount of investment from last year鈥檚 $1.3 billion, which was already a record.

Just today, San Francisco-based real-life verification company announced a $220 million Series B funding round, giving the company a $1.25 billion valuation鈥攁nd that is far from the only large round and valuation this year. Some others according to 附近上门 data include:

• Israel-based聽 passwordless authentication company hit a pre-money valuation of $2.3 billion after raising a $543 million Series A in June.
• Last month, New York-based digital identity verification firm closed a $450 million round at a $4.5 billion valuation as more companies go digital and fraud escalates.
• In June, Vancouver-based closed a $394 million Series D.

In addition to those financing deals, the space also saw one of the largest M&A deals in all of security this year when paid $6.5 billion in stock for Bellevue, Washington-based back in March.

鈥淵ou are just seeing true focus on the identity piece,鈥� said Steve Ward, a former CISO and now managing director at , which co-led Transmit鈥檚 Series A along with . 鈥淚鈥檓 really bullish on getting away from tech that came out in the 1960s, and that鈥檚 passwords.鈥�

Managing ID during COVID

Identification and authentication had been popular in cybersecurity for years, with companies like Okta,聽 and all developing platforms to help IT departments at companies manage employee identities. The COVID pandemic has continued to push growth at several of these providers as companies must manage a hybrid workforce in which many employees work from home, and authentication has become harder with that more dispersed workforce.

In addition, the pandemic also has helped bolster the market for platforms that manage consumers through biometrics, document verification, passwordless tech and other means as people move more of their lives online and fraud continues to explode.

鈥淩eal life identity has gotten real traction in recent years,鈥� said , founder and CEO of Incode.

, co-president, managing director and head of Latin America at , said his recent investment in Incode was an obvious decision with the biometrics and authentication market estimated by some to be a $12 billion opportunity in the U.S. and Latin America鈥攁nd the market is still nascent.

鈥淲e expect it to significantly expand in the near term as enterprises further focus on fraud reduction, access to credit expands, and we see the continued proliferation of financial products,鈥� Escobari said.

鈥淐ombined with the rapid acceleration of digital technology adoption during the pandemic, which has driven higher remote account openings and transaction volumes, the identity access management space has become even more critical,鈥� he added.

With talk about things such as the metaverse and 鈥減ortable identity鈥�鈥攁 users鈥� ability to take their identity with them to all places, including the data and relationships built through other digital platforms starting to take off, it seems likely more investors will identify ID management as a space to be in.

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