Hopae, the makers of one of the world’s most advanced digital identity solutions, announced $6.5 million in funding as the company introduced its proprietary, patented Digital Credential eXpress (DCX) architecture to the U.S., improving the complex world of decentralized ID (DID) implementation. And Hopae helps governments and institutions issue reusable, privacy-preserving, and unforgeable digital IDs and credentials.
This expansion and funding news comes as companies seek to comply with new international digital identity regulations.
Hopae’s funding – totaling $6.5 million – includes $4.3 million in seed round from investors led by SV Investment, with participation from Z Venture Capital, Bon Angels Venture Partners, and $2.2 million in debt financing from Korea Credit Guarantee Fund (KODIT). And these funds will be used to establish Hopae’s U.S. headquarters, expand across Europe, and solidify strategic partnerships for age and identity verification. Plus, Hopae also plans to aggressively hire across its Seoul and Paris offices and establish its new U.S. base in San Francisco to secure the talent needed to rapidly scale as it prepares to provide an ideal solution for the European Union’s (EU) new comprehensive framework for digital identity.
Known as the eIDAS 2.0 Regulation, the EU aims to create a secure, user-friendly, and interoperable digital identity system across all member states. And the goal is for at least 80% of EU citizens to use the European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallet by 2030.
Adoption is expected to support trust in digital transactions and facilitate smoother cross-border activities, enabling citizens and businesses to engage confidently in the digital market. Hopae fits this vision by creating open-source building blocks for such digital wallets. It is expected to play a prominent role in their acceptance and success.
At its core, Hopae’s DCX architecture leverages blockchain technology, ensuring digital credentials’ highest levels of security and integrity. And the design philosophy behind DCX prioritizes user control over personal data, making it the perfect solution for various applications, from government services to private sector identity verification needs.
The flexibility and adherence to global standards validate the versatility of this forward-thinking solution. The DCX system is lightweight, scalable, and capable of handling high traffic volumes while ensuring interoperability and data privacy.
DCX components create a simple, seamless, and scalable wallet infrastructure. The key benchmarks include:
— 0.1 seconds for issue and verify notification: ~30x faster than other methods
— 7 milliseconds for resolving: ~550x faster than other methods
— 300 milliseconds for revocation: ~33x faster than other methods
— 1 instance for 10K active agents: 10,000x fewer instances and 100x cheaper server costs compared to cloud solutions
Since DCX divides blockchain nodes by role, it is two times faster than other options and has a tenfold faster blockchain operation.
Even though Hopae’s architecture improves wallets, the key to widespread adoption lies in stable operation for millions of users and billions of daily verifications without any friction that could slow down transaction speeds or impede the overall experience. Hopae stands alone in terms of scalability, reliability, and user experience.
The company’s founders were core developers of the first and largest national-scale DID verification system, exemplified by COOV during COVID. The COOV system recorded 43 million monthly active users and 200 million daily transactions (including 10,000+ requests per second) in three months. COOV was provided to major Korean super-apps and telco services as an API and was compatible with systems in Singapore and Europe. This extensive experience puts the Hopae team years ahead of competitors in the rapidly evolving digital wallet paradigm.
KEY QUOTES:
“Traditional methods of identification no longer make sense. Aside from being cumbersome, they simply do not meet modern privacy and security needs. Although eIDAS 2.0 represents a driving force for the adoption of Hopae’s technology, it is clear that this is a necessity for everyone from enterprises that seek to conduct international business to the shops that want to sell goods like alcohol online. Hopae is at the forefront of a paradigm shift, and we are excited to bring DCX to the U.S.”
- Ace Shim, co-founder and CEO of Hopae
“DID will soon be used for everything from international travel to healthcare and certifications to online safety for minors. But a trustworthy, high performance solution is absolutely essential to protect businesses, governments, and users themselves. Hopae has the roots to revolutionize digital identity on a global scale. We are excited to help the company take its next steps forward.”
- Ilyong Choi of SV Investment
