Among the biggest funding deals this week in the DC area was the $12.5 million Series A round for McLean, Va.-based identity authentication startup Araxid. In an interview, CEO Mark LaRow told DC Inno that the company is looking to nearly double its workforce in 2015. The plan is to expand from 20 employees to approximately 35 — primarily in the form of technical staff such as engineers.
The funding round, led jointly by Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) and Columbia Capital (ColCap), was subsequently announced via a press release after an SEC filing/form D caught the eye of several publications.
“In making the decision on which investors to chose from [Series A round] we had five interested parties but decided on BVP and ColCap as being our best options,” LaRow told DC Inno, “at this point in time we do not have plans for another round in 2015 but that may change.”
Founded in 2012, Araxid uses what it calls "truth-matching" software to verifiably confirm identities in large database systems. Probabilistic measuring, which is the current search method commonly available to healthcare providers and government agencies, scans available local-record information to match probable individuals — even if minor differences/errors are apparent like names or addresses.
Araxid software widens the information collection scope by using credit agency records to specify identity driven data fragments. “This is truly a new technology and we’re the first ones doing it," said LaRow.
LaRow told DC Inno that his startup is the first and only company — to his knowledge — that offers this sort of product. “The most applicable situation or scenario for this technology is obviously in federal agencies/programs and for healthcare databases, where the accuracy and details of an individual need to be very precise,” LaRow said.
