After $132M Series D, ID.me Aims for Profitability in 2024

[Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article stated that the 2022 agreement between the IRS and ID.me required facial recognition for tax filing, rather than for account opening. It has also been updated to note that ID.me provides the IRS’s alternative means of identity verification for account creation.]

ID.me has raised $132 million in a Series D funding round led by Viking Global Investors, with additional contributions from CapitalG, FTV Capital, Morgan Stanley Counterpoint, PSP Growth, Auctus Investment Group, Moonshots Capital, and Scout Ventures. The company says total investments since its founding in 2010 amount to over $240 million.

The company is known for its digital identity wallet, which is designed to allow end users to store virtual versions of official credentials such as military and first responder IDs. ID.me’s platform also supports identity verification, with facial recognition technology being used to match an end user to their official ID.

It’s that biometric technology that helped to get ID.me in hot water last year, thanks to an agreement with the Internal Revenue Service that would have put ID.me’s identity verification platform at the center of the account opening process for access to the IRS’s online services. The arrangement provoked a strong response from privacy advocates and quickly drew congressional scrutiny, with the IRS ultimately pivoting to give taxpayers an alternative, non-biometric means of identity verification for online accounts, though it still relied on ID.me for this alternative.

ID.me’s Series D funding round actually concluded several months ago – closer to the controversies of early 2022 – but has only now been disclosed. Speaking to the Washington Business Journal, CEO Blake Hall explained that announcing the funding when the round closed “would have been a distraction.”

ID.me has disclosed the funding alongside its announcement of the appointment of Samantha Greenberg as its new Chief Financial Officer. Greenberg has previously held positions with major financial institutions like Citadel and Goldman Sachs, and most recently led financial operations at Mint House, with duties including planning and analysis related to capital markets, investor relations, and mergers & acquisitions.

ID.me noted that Greenberg is “a frequent presenter on technology trends” for outlets including Bloomberg BusinessWeek and CNBC’s “Delivering Alpha”.

“ID.me delivers powerful business outcomes for brands driving higher conversions and revenue and automating workflows, and for government agencies increasing digital access and pass rates and preventing fraud,” Greenberg said. “I am deeply inspired by ID.me’s mission to bring digital access to underserved communities and to combat identity theft and fraud attacks in service of our country.”

On that note, ID.me has received praise from some government quarters. In June of last year, California Governor Gavin Newsom attested that ID.me had helped his state to thwart $125 billion in fraudulent activity.

ID.me is aiming for profitability in 2024.

Sources: ID.me, Washington Business Journal

–

(Originally posted on Mobile ID World)