Digital identity startup ID.me raises $19 million to scale up, hire

McLean, Va.-based ID.me, the startup that helps individuals manage their digital identity, announced on Wednesday that it has raised a $19 million Series B. The round was led by FTV Capital. With the new influx of cash, ID.me plans to scale up sales, marketing and product development.

ID.me Secures $19 Million Series B Growth Equity Investment, Led by @FTVCapital to Transform Digital Identity https://t.co/jilFBszMGQ

— ID.me (@IDme) March 8, 2017

ID.me’s digital wallet technology allows users to prove their identity (and membership within certain groups like veterans, students, teachers and more) online. It makes, as the website puts it “proving that you are you is as easy on websites as pulling an ID card out of your physical wallet is during in-person transactions.”

This is useful both for commercial brands (think teacher discounts at various stores) and government agencies — ID.me provides “identity-as-a-service” to agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs, where proving your identity has historically been kind of a pain.

It’s also useful, as this Washington Post story points out, for those of us that just hate signing into things all the time.

“Establishing trust between two parties is a necessary step to delivering high-value services online,” CEO and founder Blake Hall said in a statement. “When users can’t prove who they are online in a secure and efficient manner, they either give up out of frustration or resort to time intensive, frustrating processes to prove their identity such as in-person visits and manual paper-based processes. ID.me’s technology makes it easy for individuals to securely verify their identity online in order to increase access to important services like government benefits, healthcare and banking.”

“The current way online identity is verified is broken,” FTV Capital partner Liron Gitig said in a statement. “ID.me’s advanced technology has proven to fix this pain point at scale.” Gitig will join the company’s board of directors.

In September, prior to this $19 million round, Hall told Technical.ly that ID.me had raised $21.5 million since 2011.