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Security - Thursday, July 28, 2005

Identrus - Profile

HQ: San Francisco, CA Founded: 1999 Management: CEO Karen Wendel was previously CEO of eFinance, which Indentrus had acquired in 2004. The company has added several other new top managers recently. Investors: Enterprise Partners Venture Capital, Rho Ventures and Zions Bancorporation loaded up Identrus with $20M in Series B in July 2005. The company was founded by ABN AMRO, Bank of America, Bankers Trust (now Deutsche Bank), Barclays, Chase Manhattan, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank and HypoVereinsbank. Business Model: Identrus provides digital identification for business to business transaction over the Internet. In March 2002, Identrus acquired Digital Signature Trust Company (DST) from Zions Bancorporation (Nasdaq: ZION) and the American Bankers Association. Using public-key infrastructure (PKI) technology from Identrus, those financial firms can confirm for sellers the identity of prospective customers, helping to prevent fraud. Competitors: Entrust, Verisign, RSA Security. Dirt: Given Indentrus' impressive founding members and the length of time it's been in business it's safe to say that the company has been a disappointment. Clearly the new investors think that the newish CEO has a plan. For sure it has a big market opportunity, but it also has formidable competitors.... Continue...