Hillsboro-based identity verification startup Q5id secured $10 million from investors as the company gears up for a series of pilot programs and the launch of a new product in 2021.
Q5id is the latest company from entrepreneur Steve Larson, who previously founded SureID. With this company, Larson and a team of about 50 people are building a platform that collects biometric information and uses it to verify identity. The product can then be used by entities like financial institutions to easily verify people’s identity for certain transactions.
The company was unveiled in January 2020 and it had ambitious growth plans. However, with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic those plans were slowed as potential customers paused discussions of new projects.
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“It really didn’t impact us as a development company,” said Larson, noting the extra time was used for further product development. “It impacted our customers, they had to change their whole way of doing business.”
However, he said “companies we were engaged with have come back.”
While talks with initial customers, such as financial institutions were paused, the company was able to recalibrate the product and add enhancements, he said. It also developed a product called Q5id Guardian, which it plans to roll out in five cities, including Portland, next year.
With Q5id Guardian the company is creating a network of people, who have opted in for membership within a given geography, to receive alerts when a child or a senior person goes missing. Larson compared it to the Amber Alert system, but noted that it doesn’t require law enforcement to initiate the alert.
Larson pushed back on questions about privacy related to the Guardian product since people opt in and the group is working with organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The company sees the product filling in a specific need for people with children or those caring for loved one’s dealing with Alzheimer's or dementia.
“People are concerned about being watched. They aren’t concerned about finding their kids,” he said. “This is to find missing kids. People are in an uproar about law enforcement and government agencies trying to surveil people or tie identity to people walking down the street. This is technology to protect yourself.”
The company has not scoped the project for issues surrounding misuse when people are trying to escape harmful situations, but that could happen in the future, according to the company.
This round was from private investors and came in through Canadian investment bank Canaccord Genuity. The company has raised $25.5 million total since 2018. The first $15.5 million all came from private investors. The company has not gone the route of securing capital from venture capital funds. Larson expects the company will again raise another round early next year.
The Guardian product is slated to be tested in Portland, Las Vegas, Salt Lake City, Raleigh and Phoenix. The company is also gearing up for some big partnerships next year to help with distribution of its identity platform, Larson said. Initially, the company is targeting enterprise customers who would then make the platform available to their own customers.
However, Larson said the company will eventually target consumers directly with its products.
The company’s staff is mostly engineering. The team moved into new offices over the summer and has ample space to grow. Larson expects to start building up the sales side next year. He expects the company will be 100 people by the end of 2022.
