Revolutionising identity services using AI

Gareth Genner is the Co-Founder and CEO of Trust Stamp, a global provider of AI-powered identity services and alumnus of 'NCSC For Startups', the programme delivered in collaboration with our innovation partner Plexal, alongside Deloitte, CyNam, Hub 8 and QA.

I recently spoke with Gareth where we discussed graduating from (what was then) the NCSC’s ‘Cyber Accelerator’, and Trust Stamp’s plans for the future.

In the past, I have worked on the concept of trust and how we evaluate and communicate and share trust. Then in 2015, I was working on the concept of zero-knowledge trust, primarily between individuals. I was working on a patent application for a trust score.

During this time Gareth and his co-founder Andrew Gowsack, who shared similar entrepreneurial passions, were exploring several business ideas. Alongside their business relationship, Gareth and Andrew are close friends. When asked in an interview with Business Collective who his hero is, Andrew rather heart-warmingly stated.

My business hero is my Co-Founder, Gareth. Before we started Trust Stamp, he was a friend and mentor to me and many of my peers, all while running an educational technology startup. He is a legal, business, and technological genius who has the rare quality of wanting to help and better everyone that he encounters.

In 2016, out of Gareth’s intellectual property, his friendship with Andrew and their shared business acumen, Trust Stamp was born. The co-founders wasted no time, winning a global startup award and over $110,000 in funding. Evidently, the key to Trust Stamp’s success has been its innovative technology which has revolutionised verification of online identities across a variety of sectors such as banking, government, real estate and humanitarian services. The company’s AI-powered solution makes use of data mining and biometric science to provide accurate identity and trust predictions while detecting and thwarting malicious attempts.

Since graduating the programme in March 2020, Trust Stamp has wasted no time, achieving $3.68m in net sales in 2021, raising over $30m in funding and possessing over 23 patents now issued, allowed, or pending.

Gareth recalls how the NCSC programme delivered “tremendous value” and noted the huge amount of NCSC expertise that was available to the team, which has led to their team remaining engaged within our NCSC For Startups alumni community.

Trust Stamp now boasts an impressive team of over 100 individuals across the globe in locations such as Malta, Warsaw, Copenhagen, the Philippines and Rwanda. They are a highly educated group with seven doctoral-level team members and an additional 23 team members with masters and higher educational qualifications.

In September 2023, the business launched its new product, which is

a wrist-worn, tamper-resistant, hypoallergenic NFC band that facilitates discrete check-in by, and communication with, participants in community-based supervision programs."

On this launch, Gareth states: "The Tap-In Band is the result of three years of market discovery and development and is a game-changer. The band is battery-free and has a fitness band-styled design that provides secure authentication without imposing embarrassment or discomfort."

In terms of what’s next for Gareth, as the self-proclaimed ‘old man’ of the Trust Stamp team, he now states proudly on his LinkedIn profile that he’s looking forward to his “highly qualified and gifted” coworkers making him redundant in a few years’ time as he transitions the business into their capable hands.
 

Gill H
Cyber Innovation, Comms Team Lead