San Francisco-based enterprise identity solution provider Okta has launched a $50 million investment fund and announced its first investment in Trusted Key, a blockchain-based digital identity firm. The news was revealed in an official Okta announcement shared with Cointelegraph on April 3.
The new investment fund, dubbed “Okta Ventures,” will reportedly focus on firms that drive innovation for identity solutions via technologies such as blockchain, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
With a focus on early stage investment, Okta Ventures will reportedly offer financial backing as well as offering use of Okta software, SDK and API design partnerships and sharing expertise.
Trusted Key, the fund’s first investment (amount unspecified), is a blockchain firm founded in 2016 by former executives from Microsoft, Oracle and Symantec. The company offers decentralized identity solutions that combine mobile and blockchain technologies within a secure platform.
Trusted Key’s solutions reportedly aim to enable organizations to work together in ecosystems where “strongly proofed user identities are shared with user consent”: proposed sectors where decentralized identity solutions could gain traction include healthcare, finance and retail.
Okta further outlines that Okta Ventures’ portfolio companies will be selected for their focus on modern identity architecture design and adoption. Users of Okta’s own existing identity technology and infrastructure solutions reportedly exceed 6,100 organizations, among them 20th Century Fox, JetBlue, Nordstrom, Slack, Teach for America and Twilio.
As just reported, a fresh analysis from Okta this week found that 61 percent of high-profile digital companies worldwide are investing in blockchain. The survey interviewed 1,050 IT, security and engineering decision makers from global companies with at least $1 billion in revenue.
Also this week, global online payments firm PayPal has made its apparently first investment in a blockchain startup — one that focuses on leveraging the technology to give users more control over their digital identities.