Axiad

Axiad is an identity security company that provides a comprehensive authentication platform for enterprise, public sector, and financial organizations. The company was founded in 2010 by Bassam Al-Khalidi and Yves Audebert, experts in encryption and authentication who were instrumental in developing PIV and CAC cards for secure government networks. Initially bootstrapped and cash-flow positive for over a decade, Axiad secured its first external funding in 2021 with a $20 million investment from Invictus Growth Partners, followed by another $25 million round from the same investor in July 2024, bringing its total funding to $45 million.

Axiad's business model transitioned from a systems integrator providing highly tailored solutions to a product-based SaaS vendor focused on sales volume. The company's core offering is the Axiad Cloud, an integrated platform designed to manage the entire lifecycle of various credentials and orchestrate passwordless authentication across complex IT environments, including cloud, on-premise, and hybrid systems. Its product suite includes Axiad Conductor for credential lifecycle management, Axiad Confirm for automated identity verification, and Axiad Mesh for surfacing identity risks. The platform supports a wide range of authenticators like FIDO passkeys, mobile MFA, PKI, YubiKeys, smart cards, and biometrics, integrating with existing Identity and Access Management (IAM) infrastructures to enhance security without requiring a complete system overhaul.

The company serves clients across various sectors, including federal agencies, financial services, healthcare, energy, and insurance. By providing phishing-resistant multi-factor authentication (MFA) and certificate-based authentication, Axiad helps organizations strengthen their cybersecurity posture, meet compliance requirements like FedRAMP and HIPAA, and reduce risks associated with compromised credentials, which are responsible for a majority of enterprise breaches. Its solutions aim to reduce the burden on IT departments through user self-service features and automation.

Keywords: identity security, passwordless authentication, credential management, multi-factor authentication, cybersecurity, PKI-as-a-Service, zero-trust, identity and access management, phishing resistance, certificate-based authentication