TransCrypts, a blockchain startup constructing instruments for folks to personal and share verified credentials, has raised a $15 million seed spherical led by Pantera Capital.
The spherical included Lightspeed Faction, Alpha Edison, Motley Idiot Ventures, and a mixture of returning buyers resembling Mark Cuban and Protocol Labs.
The funding follows a powerful summer time for the San Francisco-based firm. In September, TransCrypts received CoinDesk’s Pitchfest at Consensus Hong Kong, taking house $10,000 in tokens, a trophy, and ten teaching periods.
Founder and CEO Zain Zaidi stated that the win helped the crew refine its imaginative and prescient for what he calls “self-sovereign id”— a means for folks to manage their knowledge immediately, with out counting on employers, universities, or authorities businesses.
Bureaucratic mishap
Zaidi based the corporate after a bureaucratic mishap practically price him his spot in grad faculty when his transcripts had been misplaced. “If we are able to’t show who we’re or what we’ve accomplished, we lose one thing important,” he stated in an earlier interview with CoinDesk.
TransCrypts started by digitizing employment verification. Its platform lets customers accumulate, encrypt, and share information immediately with employers, background checkers, or others who want them. The system shops encrypted knowledge off-chain, whereas the hashes dwell on-chain, so customers can show authenticity with out revealing private particulars.
Now, with HIPAA certification secured, TransCrypts plans to increase the mannequin to well being and schooling credentials. That would permit sufferers to hold verified medical histories between suppliers, or graduates to share diplomas and transcripts with potential employers—all with out the necessity for intermediaries.
Id onchain
The transfer comes as fraud dangers are on the rise. People misplaced $43 billion to id theft in 2023, and deepfake scams have surged greater than 1,800 p.c in a 12 months, in accordance with the corporate’s launch. Zaidi argues that decentralized id may assist counter these developments by permitting folks to manage what knowledge is shared, when, and with whom.
TransCrypts claims to already serve 4 million customers and over 450 enterprise purchasers, together with corporations in healthcare and staffing. The brand new capital will fund growth into these regulated sectors and strengthen instruments for verifying credentials in actual time.
For customers, that may imply sooner hiring or simplified onboarding for hospitals and colleges. For the broader market, it alerts rising confidence in blockchain-based id techniques—as soon as a distinct segment concept, now seen as a doable safeguard towards the deepfake period.