Market map / Identity proofing
ID.me
A consumer-held digital identity wallet: verify once to NIST IAL2, then reuse that credential across government and commercial relying parties.
- Category
- Reusable identity network
- Lane
- Identity proofing
- Founded
- 2010 (ID.me since 2013)
- Ownership
- Private; VC/PE-backed (~$1.8B valuation, 2024)
- HQ
- McLean, US
Summary
ID.me is a US identity-proofing and reusable-identity provider that verifies a person through document and selfie/video checks at the NIST IAL2 assurance level. Once verified, the individual holds a credential they can reuse across many relying parties without re-proving each time. It is widely deployed across US federal and state government (IRS, SSA, VA, and many state unemployment systems) and commercial partners offering group-eligibility discounts.
Best for
US government agencies and consumer businesses needing high-assurance (IAL2) remote proofing plus group-eligibility verification at population scale.
Consider if
Your use case is outside the US, workforce rather than consumer, or you want full control of the proofing UX and data rather than a third-party wallet.
Strengths
- IAL2-certified proofing trusted by major US federal agencies and many states
- Reusable credential cuts repeat-verification friction across a broad relying-party network
- Strong group-eligibility verification (military, student, first responder)
Considerations
- Past scrutiny over facial-recognition accuracy and verification wait times
- US-centric and consumer-oriented; weak fit for global or workforce identity