Another Irish start-up has attracted the attention of investors. Valid8Me is based in Cork, and has secured €12.5 million from Dublin’s Grant Thornton Ireland to fuel its international expansion.
Valid8Me is specifically hoping to use the funds to extend its reach into the UK and the European Union. The company was founded in 2019, and is trying to provide people with a reusable digital identity that can be used in a wide range of situations. In that regard, the company’s service is comparable to Yoti, which also issues secure digital IDs that can be used during interactions with private and public entities alike.
For its part, Valid8Me is hoping that its solution will reduce the amount of personal information that people need to share to gain access to certain services. As it stands, consumers often need to share the same information with multiple organizations, and that information can become compromised if even one of those organizations gets hacked. A digital ID, on the other hand, would allow people to present a digital credential that confirms that they are who they say they are without needing to reveal any other details.
Valid8Me is designed primarily for Know Your Customer (KYC) applications. The company suggested that banks are spending an average of $60 million every single year to comply with KYC regulations.
“The idea that consumers repeatedly share their most sensitive data, often through insecure channels, to prove their identity is archaic,” said Valid8Me CEO Patrick Horgan. “We empower consumers to maintain a reusable digital identity that can be used across all industries.”
“KYC and the process by which businesses look to onboard and verify client identities is broken,” added Grant Thornton Ireland Financial Services Advisory Head Steve Tennant. “We deal with an increasing number of clients who are extremely challenged by the resource overhead in complying with AML & KYC regulatory obligations.”
ID-Pal, another Irish identity start-up, brought in €7 million in Series A funding earlier this month. The Irish phone verification specialist Phonovation also picked up a Deloitte Financial Services Innovation Award in June.
Source: UK Tech News
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