Munich-based identity pioneer looks back on ten years of revolutionizing the KYC space and doubles down on reusable identities and trust services
Munich, June 27, 2024 – IDnow, a leading platform provider for identity verification in Europe, is looking back on ten successful years of revolutionizing the German and European Know-Your-Customer (KYC) market and is now doubling down on reusable identities and trust services. Founded in 2014 by Armin Bauer, Sebastian Bärhold, Felix Haas and Dennis von Ferenczy, the Munich-based company’s flagship product at the time was the revolutionary VideoIdent, which had just been allowed by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin).
A platform with automated and expert-led solutions that serves all needs
Since then, a variety of solutions have been added to the portfolio, following market needs and technological trends: the AI-supported, fully automated AutoIdent solution was introduced in 2018, followed by the electronic function of the German ID card (eID) in 2019. Just last year, IDnow introduced ShopIdent, the onsite solution for identification in German petrol stations and stores. The transaction figures prove the success of these solutions: Over 13.2 million transactions have been processed via IDnow AutoIdent, while the scale-up looks back on another 13 million successfully identified users with VideoIdent to date.
In 2019, Andreas Bodczek was appointed as CEO at IDnow: “We have made it our mission over the past five years to actively shape and lead our industry and show our customers why digital identities are essential to their business. In the last decade, we have grown into a platform provider that serves all market needs with the help of the latest technology. We have earned the trust of our customers because we focus on our core business every day without losing sight of the secular trends that are shaping the market.”
Munich-based scale-up has long been one of the largest European players
In 2021, increased expansion opportunities led IDnow to acquire the French market leader for identity verification technology, ARIADNEXT, and the German provider identity Trust Management AG, establishing IDnow as one of the largest European players in the identity industry.
In addition to its traditional financial and telecommunications applications, new growth areas for IDnow have opened up in the mobility and travel industry, online dating, gaming, human resources and social media. Although user needs and regulatory requirements differ greatly from traditional industries, the desire for increased trust in digital transactions has grown across territories, regardless of the use case.
Reusable identities and trust services determine the future
The digital identity industry is facing a paradigm shift due to regulations, such as eIDAS 2.0 at the European level or announced changes to the Videoident regulation in Germany. With its more than 900 trusted customers, the company aims to leverage these relationships and take them to the next level by building up its own trust service and a digital identity pool of several million users in the next few years. In doing so, the scale-up intends to lead the way in the transformation of the digital identity market heralded by eIDAS 2.0: European trust services, reusable identities and a fully integrated, broad product portfolio form the basis of the company’s long-term product strategy.
“Today, we are facing a fundamental transformation of our industry – away from the one-time verification process and towards reusable identities – and we will once again lead this revolution,” Bodczek says. “Since its founding, IDnow, with its broad and continually evolving portfolio, has shown a great deal of foresight, resiliency, and adaptability to market developments. With a team of over 450 highly skilled colleagues across ten offices in Europe, we are already one of the largest players in the identity industry. The experience, expertise, and innovation drive that we have assembled in-house make us extremely optimistic about the next ten years of our company and the industry at large,” he concludes.
