Indian fintech vendor Polaris Software has agreed to buy an 85% stake in digital identity authentication outfit IndenTrust for $20 million.
IdenTrust was founded in 1999 by a group of banks, including Citi, Bank of America, Chase, Barclays, HSBC, and Deutsche to provide an ID authentication system. It now has 20 bank shareholders but the acquisition deal will see Zions Bancorporation take on the minority interest.
Its system provides a legally and technologically interoperable environment for authenticating and using identities in more than 175 countries, says the vendor.
Polaris is gaining 10 of the world's biggest financial organisations as clients as well as a portfolio of patents and associated intellectual property and expertise. The deal also marks its entry into the fast-growing cloud computing market.
Arun Jain, founder, Polaris, says: "With increasing dependency on the Internet, security solutions that incorporate identity management are a key element in any cloud offering. We believe that IdenTrust, being a proven provider of bank-grade identity authentication in 175 countries, will bring in the required expertise in this area allowing us to create more value for our clients by providing the most secure Financial Infrastructure solutions."
In 2010, IdenTrust reported revenue of about $9 million. It's expected to start making a profit in 2012, says Jain.