Innovative Cork business valid8Me eyes expansion as it resolves to drive the future of identity management.
Cork regulation technology (regtech) business valid8Me plans to double its headcount to 60 people after raising €12.5m in funding from Grant Thornton Ireland.
Valid8Me allows both individuals and corporations to securely store, share and manage their key Know-Your-Customer related data.
“KYC and the process by which businesses look to on-board and verify client identities is broken”
“The idea that consumers repeatedly share their most sensitive data, often through insecure channels, to prove their identity is archaic. Valid8Me is fundamentally different, we empower consumers to maintain a reusable digital identity that can be used universally across all industries,” explained Patrick Horgan, CEO of valid8Me.
“Our platform addresses an enormous challenge for businesses by enabling enhanced AML compliance in a radically future proof and cost-effective way, whilst offering their clients a more secure and convenient experience”
“This investment from Grant Thornton Ireland, combined with their global reach and multisector expertise, will act as a transformational partner in accelerating valid8Me’s ambitious high-growth strategy. Grant Thornton truly understands valid8Me’s vision to become the universal defacto standard for digital identity globally.”
Digital identity management
Valid8Me pioneered and champions reusable digital identity, helping businesses streamline proof of identity and onboarding processes with simplicity, certainty and control.
“We view the valid8Me platform as complementary to a number of our service lines and specifically addresses the needs of our clients across a number of sectors including financial services, legal, accounting, wealth management and real estate among others,” explained Mick McAteer, managing partner of Grant Thornton Ireland.
“We are excited to build our product and service offering in these sectors and bring real innovative solutions to our clients.”
Customer onboarding has become a significant pain-point for customers and businesses alike in recent years, with a lack of joined up thinking resulting in businesses spending a disproportionate amount of budget and time on manually validating, updating and storing documents. The average bank, for example, spends 60 million dollars per year on Know-Your-Customer compliance.
Steve Tennant, Head of Financial Services Advisory at Grant Thornton Ireland added: “KYC and the process by which businesses look to on-board and verify client identities is broken. We deal with an increasing number of clients who are extremely challenged by the resource overhead in complying with AML & KYC regulatory obligations.
“Valid8Me offers a ground-breaking approach to solving this problem and importantly optimising the customer and client experience. We use valid8Me ourselves and have first-hand experience of how it has transformed our client onboarding processes.”
Main image: (Back Row L-R) Patrick Horgan, valid8me CEO and co-founder; Ciaran Corkery, CPO and co-founder of valid8Me; (Front Row L-R) Stephen Tennant, Partner, Head of Financial Services Advisory and Louise Barry, Partner, Head of Risk, Grant Thornton Ireland
