Identity management specialist secures growth funding

Manchester-based ProofID, a specialist in identity and access management (IAM), has secured £3m in growth capital from BOOST&Co.

The business is a trusted partner of the major US provider Ping Identity, implementing and maintaining systems for Ping’s blue-chip corporate clients, which typically employ 2,000 to 10,000 people worldwide.

ProofID has already been recognised by industry giant Gartner, receiving an honourable mention in the global research and advisory firm’s 2018 Magic Quadrant report on identity governance and administration, and was last week announced as the winner of Ping Identity’s Delivery Partner of the Year 2018.

Its customers in the finance sector include Tesco Bank, Canada Life and Silicon Valley Bank, and it manages millions of identities in more than 150 countries across Europe, North America, Asia and the Middle East.

It has a strong record in audit trails and compliance, growing areas of the market in which its products are used to map users’ activity each day.

“The market is presenting exciting new opportunities. Data protection, identity management, audit trails and compliance are increasingly important parts of everyday life, and ProofID is well-placed to capitalise on these,” said Kim Martin, principal at BOOST&Co, which is based in London and has a Manchester office.

“ProofID has a first-class management team, and the business is growing in a measured and sensible way,” she added.

Most of the loan will be used to fund growth initiatives, such as expanding ProofID’s sales and marketing teams.

The company said it will continue to raise its profile by remaining at the forefront of industry developments, with its key people regularly in demand to speak as experts at major conferences and trade shows.

Part of the loan will fund the launch of its ProofID IGA product as a cloud service, and money will also be invested in ProofID’s recently-acquired consultancy business PEGRight, based in Colorado Springs, to help the newly-expanded company provide more services to Ping in the US.

ProofID’s chairman, Gareth Noonan, said: “From the start, we felt that this offer was the right option for us.

“BOOST&Co’s tailored lending and swift decision-making, as well as Kim’s understanding of our business and her excellent communication, gave us confidence that venture debt would help us to achieve our targets for growth.”

ProofID was founded in 2014, and Martin said the business has made impressive progress, becoming a big hitter in the sector within five years.

It was initially supported by funding from University of Salford Enterprises, as part of the company’s acquisition of Salford Software, the leading provider of IAM solutions to academic institutions in the UK.

A number of universities, such as the University of the Arts London, the University of Hull and Glasgow Caledonian University, are now among ProofID’s key clients.

Its customers also include retailers ranging from eBay to the John Lewis Partnership, and non-profit organisations including the World Wildlife Fund.