The Ideem team has a clear vision for how to make two-factor authentication easy and invisible for users, serial tech entrepreneur Toby Rush said, noting an early investment round will help the rapidly emerging startup double-down.
Ideem announced a $2.4 million seed round Tuesday, backed by Sovereign’s Capital, Quona Capital, Everywhere Ventures, Hustle Fund, Oread Angels, Network Kansas, and a group of strategic angels.
“The kind of investors we’re able to bring in really understand the problem that we’re going after, which is much more emerging markets,” explained Rush, who serves as CEO of Ideem, a platform that aims to remove the friction, fraud and costs in today’s mobile payment flows to deliver fast, secure one-click experiences.
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The problem: One-time passcodes typically are unreliable, slow, and expensive to deliver, and even tokenized auto-pay systems leave platforms blind to account takeovers and unable to alert users when things go wrong, he said.
That challenge is global — with international interest in developing a solution, Rush emphasized, detailing that Sovereign’s Capital has offices in Singapore and the United States; Quona Capital focuses on fintech within emerging markets and has offices in South America, Mexico, Africa, the Middle East, India, and Singapore; and Hustle Fund is based in Singapore.
“When raising money, you always want to go after smart, connected money,” he added, “and these are very smart, very connected supporters of ours that believe in what we’re doing, understand the problem statement, and will help us execute.”
Possessing deep expertise
Ideem marks Rush’s fourth true startup experience, he shared, noting the three most recent ventures each have fallen into the identity and authentication space — namely how users connect their offline identity into the digital world so that transactions are seamless.
Toby Rush, Redeem
“EyeVerify, definitely, helped me understand the flow, biometrics, identity, all those pieces,” he explained, referencing his biometric security technology company that was acquired by an affiliate of Alibaba in 2016 (and later rebranded at Zoloz).
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“In the authentication world, there are three kinds of authentication,” Rush continued. “There’s something that you know, which is your password; something you are, which is your biometrics; and something you have, which is this possession. We’re focused very much on the possession factor of authentication. They’re absolutely in that same vein.”
Ideem — which officially launched in August 2024 with co-founders Greg Storm, Maranda Manning, and Tim Massey — is a spinout of TripleBlind, another startup in this space that Rush had a hand in launching, he noted. (Selfii, a health data privacy platform, acquired TripleBlind’s Privacy Suite in 2024, launching its TripleBlind Exchange in January 2025.)
“TripleBlind had been asked by a Top 5 global bank to look at a particular problem statement,” Rush said of that startup’s previous work. “It used a lot of similar technology, and the outcomes went really, really well. As we looked at that experience, we said, ‘Hey, this is really a separate product and a separate company.’ So in some ways, the product has been in development with a Top 5 bank as a design partner for two years.”
That global bank is working on rolling Ideem out globally and the team already has a couple of early customers in southeast Asia that are using the product, Rush said, stressing that two-factor authentication is a heightened pain point within emerging markets.
“Ideem offers a little piece of software that gets plugged into your mobile device that’s always on,” he explained. “We basically turn your phone into this hardware authenticator that you can access via software.”
Maranda Manning, co-founder and vice president of growth and operations for Ideem, speaks in January during a panel at Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2025 summit and celebration; photo by Tommy Felts, Startland News
Greg Storm, Ideem
Tim Massey, Ideem
The Ideem team is a testament to the strength of the Kansas City entrepreneurial connections, Rush noted: Storm was a co-founder at TripleBlind; Massey is a veteran of both EyeVerify and TripleBlind; and Manning gained valuable expertise at Firebrand Ventures and Techstars Kansas City.
Together, their combined experience has brought more than a dozen products to market.
“It’s a healthy ecosystem that continues to grow and evolve,” Rush, also a longtime standard-bearer for the Pipeline Entrepreneurs network, said of the greater region and its relationship to innovators. “It’s not just a story. It’s real. There is a benefit of repeat founders and people who have been engaged in the ecosystem for a long time.”
Building (and keeping) trust
Ideem is tackling a massive and urgent opportunity at the intersection of security and digital commerce, said Jake Thomsen, managing partner at Sovereign’s Capital.
“As more platforms look for ways to reduce friction without compromising trust, Ideem’s approach delivers a rare combination of technical depth and real-world business impact,” he continued. “We’re excited to back this exceptional team as they redefine how authentication should work in modern commerce.”
In the markets where Quona invests, mobile-first commerce is growing rapidly, but authentication and checkout friction remain stubborn barriers to scale, noted Monica Brand Engel, managing partner at Quona Capital.
“Ideem’s solution is purpose-built for these environments, replacing outdated methods with a fast, seamless, and secure experience that helps platforms convert more users and build trust at scale,” she said. “We believe Ideem is positioned to become a critical part of the payments infrastructure in these ecosystems.”
Rush said Endeavor Heartland — an affiliate of the international Endeavor network, which supports high-impact entrepreneurs worldwide — has been “wildly” helpful in making connections in those emerging markets, including introducing Ideem to Quona Ventures.
He just finished a two-week trip in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines, meeting with Endeavor officials in those countries.
“They will help me get connected, understand the landscape, and make introductions as we need local partners,” he added.
