34. cheqd – personal identity, protected like never before

Founders: Fraser Edwards, Ankur Banerjee, and Javed Khattak
Year founded: 2021
Website: cheqd.io

Decentralised identity – how’s that for a concept? We’ve just about got our heads around blockchain and cryptocurrency, and the decentralised future of the web looks set to stay. 

So, why not trust in this approach for protecting personal identifiers when signing into services or paying online? That’s where cheqd believes the future lies. 

Hot from featuring in position #60 in last year’s index, this UK startup is positioning itself right at the forefront of the secure sign-in charge.

Of course, for any startup dealing in such admittedly obscure concepts, there was a blocker from the off – getting just about anyone to understand what they were on about.

“Our biggest challenge when starting cheqd was building trust,” cheqd’s founders told us. “As pioneers in decentralised identity, we faced scepticism from potential partners and clients who were unfamiliar with the technology and its benefits. Educating the market while simultaneously developing a robust and secure platform required significant effort.”

The cheqd team overcame this hurdle by focusing on transparency and collaboration with industry experts, and by demonstrating the value and security of the platform through real-world use cases and partnerships. 

The outcome of all of this work was cheqd’s mission for the future of data security: self-sovereign identity (SSI). This user-centric approach safeguards privacy by removing the need to store personal information on any central database, removing vulnerabilities in how that data might be accessed.

By building such credibility in the decentralised identity space, cheqd was able to secure £2.4m in pre-seed and seed round private equity funding to scale the business.

The founding team are bullish about the future of their tech and their business. “We envision cheqd being widely adopted across industries, enabling seamless and trusted interactions between individuals, institutions, and devices”, they tell Startups.

“By setting the standard for how digital identity and reputation are managed globally, cheqd will play a pivotal role in the evolution of a more secure and transparent internet.”

It’s an exciting UK tech success story that has a potentially huge future in front of it, if the team can continue to build on their progress to date, and truly transform how data security plays out on the internet of tomorrow.