Only have 1 minute? Here are 3 takeaways from the piece:
• Outdid, an end-to-end private ID verification solution leveraging zero knowledge proofs announced the closing of its $2.5M seed round
• The round was led by Jump Crypto, supported by Superscrypt, and with participation from more than 15 angel investors.
• The company’s verification solution requires no centralized access, processing, or storage of personal information, ensuring user privacy while eliminating opportunities for data breaches.
Founded in 2022 by Bulgarian and Romanian founders, the startup looks to revolutionize identity verification through a distinctive privacy-centric approach. Outdid’s platform employs zero-knowledge proof (being able to verify ID documents while keeping all user data locally on their devices) technology to deliver fraud-resistant and cost-effective verification services.
“On one hand, data privacy has become a significant concern for people globally. On the other hand, fraud with online verification has reached a new record, the prevention of which requires more data collection and processing. Our ID document verification solution addresses these issues head-on. It is designed to ensure that not only verification is fraud-resistant, but personal data remains private, tucked away from prying eyes,” said Zvezdin Besarabov, Outdid’s CEO and co-founder, whose experience includes working on different research projects such as cryptocurrency forecasts and automated creation of AI solutions.
Primarily focused on age verification use-cases, Outdid’s technology is applicable across various industries requiring ID document verification, such as financial services, hospitality, mobility, e-commerce, and more. The scalable solution can manage volume surges without the need for additional resources, its founders add.
“Identity fraud is typically enabled when someone gets their hand on a user’s private data (e.g. photo of their passport). Outdid conducts identity verification without having the user ever send their private data to anyone for processing or storage. Even Outdid doesn’t see the user’s data, so there’s nothing to be stolen/hacked to conduct identity fraud,” said Ana-Maria Pricop, Outdid’s COO and co-founder.
Thus, Outdid’s structure allows businesses to maintain rigorous verification standards without the usual substantial expenses.
“Industries which can benefit most from Outdid are ones affected by new internet verification regulations (UK’s online safety bill, US’ kids online safety act, similar movements in Germany, France, etc). This includes social media, e-commerce, mobility, and medical. Verification scenarios includes verifying region of the user (in a way where using VPNs is ineffective), true age verification, sybil resistance (i.e. giving one-time discounts to users where they can’t just make another trial account), name verification (e.g. that the name on your account matches your ID),” Besarabov adds.
Based in London, Outdid will now use the funding for product and business development. The company’s solution has also been touted by established industry key players such as identity management platform Auth0.
“There are a lot of identity verification solutions out there but no one taking the approach to privacy Outdid is taking using zero-knowledge proofs, minimizing costs and compliance risks,” Matias Woloski, CTO and co-founder of Auth0, pointed out.
