Digital identity verification company ForgeRock has closed a $93.5m Series E round at a time when the sector is poised for massive growth.
The round was led by Riverwood Capital, the investor that has previously supported ventures like SecurityScorecard, a security ratings startup.
“ForgeRock’s comprehensive platform is very well-positioned to capitalise on the enormous opportunity in the identity and access management market,” said Jeff Parks, co-founder and managing partner of Riverwood Capital. “ForgeRock is the leader in solving a wide range of workforce and consumer identity use cases for the Global 2000 and is trusted by some of the largest companies to manage millions of user identities. We have seen the growth acceleration and are thrilled to partner with this leadership team.”
ForgeRock’s existing investors also participated in the raise.
“It’s a momentous day not only for our partners, investors and employees, but also for our customers – the more than 1,100 organisations counting on us more than ever in light of the global pandemic to make their employees 100% productive and their customers happy,” said Fran Rosch, CEO of ForgeRock.
The fundraising comes after a year in which ForgeRock secured over 200 new large enterprise customers. “While this is a moment to celebrate, we know the best is yet to come,” said Rosch. “This additional funding will enable us to infuse every aspect of the ForgeRock Identity Platform with the power of artificial intelligence (AI) so organisations can identify the actions that move the needle in order to make better, faster decisions. This new round will also support our cloud ambitions and turbo-charge our sales, marketing, and customer success organisations to take them to the next level.”
ForgeRock has created an AI-powered identity platform built for any deployment option. “Growing ahead of industry pace, we changed the traditional identity market by introducing the most comprehensive identity platform for consumers, workforce and things,” said Rosch
ForgeRock’s raise comes hot on the heels of two other huge rounds that has taken place in the digital identity space over the past week.
Firstly, Silicon Valley veterans, Jim Clark, who founded Netscape, and Tom Jermoluk, the founder of @Home Network, launched security startup Beyond Identity on the back of a big $30m Series A round.
Then Onfido, the British digital identity scaleup, raised a massive $100m round to fuel further expansion.
The identification and background check market is one of the biggest RegTech sectors in the world. Between 2015 and 2019, the sector has made up between 13.6% and 19.5% of the total investment going into the RegTech industry, according to RegTech Analyst’s research. 
Moreover, the European identity verification market value is set to more than double to $4.4bn by 2027, up from $1.46bn in 2018, according to research from ResearchAndMarkets.com. The research estimated that the sector will increase by a compound annual growth rate of 13.3% between 2018 and 2027.
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