Romanian secure authentication platform Unloq has been acquired by the only European born Identity Platform, the Dutch iWelcome, both companies announced. The amount of the acquisition remains undisclosed.
Founded in 2010 in Romania, with the purpose of changing the face of the European Identity & Access Management Industry, Unloq is a privately held provider of distributed authentication and authorization systems that secures access to apps and portals without requiring users to remember any passwords. It also helps organizations to unify and secure data currently kept in silos while providing an intuitive user experience.
The acquisition made by iWelcome is not a pure coincidence. Both companies have been in cooperation since 2016, when iWelcome recruited Unloq to assist them as a technology partner in creating a Mulfti-Factor Authentication platform.
“Over the time we’ve developed a great working relationship based on our shared mission to provide seamless authentication and identity management solutions”, says Unloq’s team in their press release following the acquisition.
“In fact, Unloq’s passwordless authentication is already used by some of iWelcome’s customers. This synergy will enable our teams to further build upon the existing relationship and create the next generation of Identity and Access Management as a Service”.
According to Mircea Patachi, CEO of Unloq, this acquisition will help them further develop their platform.
“We are very excited about joining iWelcome. With the addition of the Unloq mobile technology we will accelerate iWelcome’s execution for handling push-and-swipe access requests and auditable just-in-time and progressive consent approval”, says Patachi.
For iWelcome this cooperation will provide new capabilities to iWelcome’s enterprise customers.
“Unloq brings technical skills and expertise in the field of Multi Factor and Passwordless Authentication that will be used in our platform to solidify our B2B and B2B2C delegation capabilities,” said Danny de Vreeze, founder and CEO of iWelcome.
“Our 2FA authenticator will become the default option for power users that access privacy-sensitive data such as customer care center operators, administrators and business delegates that grant other users access to company applications. We offer the app completely branded, and it features a simple push and swipe function for maximum user-friendliness.”
The transition, according to Unloq’s release will be made by the end of this year. As of 2nd January 2020 all their applications will be used under the iWelcome brand. As reported the entire Uniloq team will join the iWelcome’s team.
Founded in 2010, iWelcome is a provider of Identity and Access Management as a Service (IDAAS), helping organisations manage the identity life cycle and access of their employees, customers, partners and suppliers in a simple and efficient way.
The company was founded with the purpose of changing the face of European Identity & Access Management industry. iWelcome is a 100% European company certified by the Dutch Government and has offices in The Netherlands and Romania. Analysts such as KuppingerCole and Gartner have acknowledged iWelcome as a Product and Innovation Leader through Excellence ratings.
