Hopae is committing €5 million over the next two years to grow its European footprint, positioning itself to serve enterprises preparing for the shift toward government-backed digital identity and the rollout of the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet. The company will expand its team, deepen its technical integrations across EU member states, and establish a stronger presence in Luxembourg, which it calls one of the region’s most advanced hubs for trust services and cybersecurity.
The investment builds on a series of moves Hopae has made over the past year to strengthen its role as an intermediary for eIDs and emerging wallet ecosystems. Earlier in the year, it introduced Hopae Connect, a global eID verification platform meant to collapse the complexity of integrating with multiple national identity schemes. Soon after, the company secured OpenID Connect certification for Hopae Connect, reinforcing its push to offer a neutral and interoperable layer between issuers, relying parties, and digital wallets.
This trajectory became more explicit when Hopae Connect debuted as the first EU-registered intermediary for eIDAS 2.0, built in partnership with Luxembourg’s INCERT. That announcement signaled the company’s intention to serve as the connective tissue for Europe’s emerging identity ecosystem — particularly as businesses brace for a period of early EUDI Wallet adoption in 2026, followed by mandatory acceptance in 2027 for regulated industries and very large online platforms.
The timing reflects broader shifts in the identity market. Hopae argues that document-based verification is increasingly vulnerable to deepfakes and synthetic identities, and that enterprises are beginning to look for higher-assurance, government-backed alternatives. With multiple national eID schemes and wallet pilots advancing on different timelines, companies face a fragmented landscape that is difficult to navigate without intermediary support.
As part of its expansion, Hopae has appointed Bertrand Bouteloup as General Manager Europe and Chief Revenue Officer. Bouteloup, who previously served in senior roles at IDnow and Capgemini, will oversee commercial adoption across the region. His appointment follows a wave of executive moves in the sector captured in earlier coverage of veteran leadership hires in digital identity, underscoring how quickly the industry is reorganizing around wallet-based verification.
The company also plans to scale its coverage of eID schemes and wallets from the current fifty-plus integrations to more than one hundred by mid-2026, while pursuing QTSP status and expanding its issuance capabilities for verifiable credentials and branded wallets. Those elements tie back to Hopae’s long-term goal: an identity infrastructure where users can instantly prove who they are and organizations can onboard customers through a single, reusable verification layer.
The expansion follows other efforts to accelerate ecosystem adoption, including Hopae’s developer bounty program aimed at speeding up integrations with national eID systems. With new investment now committed, the company appears to be positioning itself for a pivotal stage in Europe’s digital identity transition – one driven as much by regulation as by growing pressure to defend against AI-enabled fraud.
–
By the ID Tech Editorial Team
