A Virginia tech company that has hired more than 500 Tampa Bay residents since May has raised more than $100 million.
ID.me Inc., an identity security company that opened a second office in Tampa earlier this year, secured $100 million in debt financing from funds managed by Fortress Investment Group LLC. It also raised a $20 million revolving credit facility, the company told the Business Journal Thursday.
The latest follows another nine-figure round the company raised in March from a handful of investors, including Viking Global Investors, Counterpoint Global (Morgan Stanley) and CapitalG, a growth fund of Google parent Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL).
With the newest funds, ID.me is valued at $1.5 billion, the company said. CEO and founder Blake Hall told the Tampa Bay Business Journal there are no plans to specifically deploy any of the funding in the Tampa Bay region, but will instead use it to fuel overall growth and expand its offerings.
"We love Tampa, so we will continue to invest in Tampa and hire and expand our team down there," Hall said.
The company's Tampa office spans 103,000 square feet across three floors at an undisclosed location due to safety reasons. The local office has 562 employees with 21 openings.
"I've always been a fan of the city and as we've expanded and hired folks down there, there's certainly something to be said of Southern hospitality," Hall said. "That's why we hired over 500 people; it's been a really nice start."
ID.me has been growing rapidly for the past year, with 324% revenue growth during the past three years; it also said it has added 1,300 total new employees since January. Hall told the Business Journal he is not seeking a Series D in the near future but does have eventual plans to go public. Unlike a number of local companies that have gone with special-purpose acquisition companies, better known as SPAC deals, Hall believes a traditional IPO will be more likely.
"I'm not a huge fan of SPACs," he said. "There's bit of a stigma with SPACs, and that people deploy them to avoid due diligence, and the SEC is looking at SPACs a lot harder."
The McLean Va. startup also took the occasion of its latest funding announcement to note a couple of new hires. Rajat Bahri joined ID.me as chief financial officer, coming off of five years as CFO at retail startup Wish. He also previously served as CFO of Jasper Wireless and Trimble Navigation. Kevin Lyons has joined ID.me as chief people officer, after serving in the same role at Brinks Home Security. And Alexei Czeskis, formerly an engineer in Google's authentication and security division, has joined ID.me as vice president of engineering.
ID.me, founded in 2010 as the military-focused TroopSwap, had raised $241.33 million to date with this latest raise, according to PitchBook.
Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, ID.me said it has “experienced explosive growth,” as consumers have shifted many of their shopping, health care, and banking needs online, requiring better ways to verify a person's identity across the internet. The company has brought on state clients including New York, Kentucky and Arizona to help root out fraudulent unemployment claims.
ID.me also offers services for individuals, whether it's to access government services or to show proof of qualification for things like military or student discounts, for instance. The company says more than 100,000 people per day are joining the ID.me network to secure their identities and gain access to services and benefits.
"One of our missions for the past year has been to help states get individuals the benefits they deserve while battling massive identity fraud," Blake Hall, founder and CEO of ID.me, said in a statement Wednesday. "Now, with this new financing, we can double down on our corporate vision to solve every digital citizen's biggest pain point — the multiple password problem."
