PALO ALTO, Calif., Nov. 06, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — NEC X, the Silicon Valley venture studio backed by NEC Corporation’s (NEC; TSE: 6701) advanced technologies and global businesses, today announced a strategic investment in Indicio, an innovative startup revolutionizing digital trust by enabling people, organizations, connected devices, and AI agents to control cryptographically verifiable digital identities and share instantly-verifiable data.
The investment supports Indicio’s participation in NEC X’s Elev X! Boost program, which is designed to fast-track tech development and adoption for promising startups.
Indicio’s platform and specialized encryption technology addresses critical vulnerabilities in traditional, centralized identity systems, which are prone to data breaches, privacy violations and forgery. These outdated models require people to repeatedly share sensitive data, increasing risks and creating costly administrative burdens for banks, government operations and enterprises.
The self-sovereign identity (SSI) market is projected to reach $47.1 billion by 2029, with 500 million smartphone users expected to adopt decentralized identity wallets by 2026. Recognized by Gartner and Juniper Research firms as a market leader in Decentralized Identity, Indicio enables organizations to meet the growing demand for secure, privacy-preserving digital interactions and decentralized infrastructure.
“We are honored to join NEC X,” said Heather Dahl, CEO of Indicio, “and to see our innovation in digital identity authentication and access management, biometrics, AI, seamless digital travel and border management recognized by such a technology leader as NEC X. We see decentralization and verifiable digital identity as the foundation for building the next era of the internet, and for scaling new digital markets and autonomous digital systems. The ability to instantly authenticate any entity and share trusted data securely and in a privacy-preserving way will be a tremendously powerful ‘algorithm’ that synergizes economic growth, business integration, and consumer trust. It will also be critical to successfully deploying autonomous systems that use AI.”
Being part of NEC X’s Elev X! program will inform, inspire, and above all, accelerate our work in making this new, better, simpler and safer digital world a reality.”
NEC X’s Elev X! Boost program provides startups with strategic funding, cutting-edge technology access and business resources to accelerate their growth. Indicio will leverage NEC X’s investment and NEC’s world-class biometric authentication technologies to develop new solutions for applications like trusted AI, streamlined travel and secure access management.
“Indicio’s vision for a user-controlled internet aligns perfectly with NEC X’s commitment to fostering disruptive technologies that solve fundamental global challenges,” said Shintaro Matsumoto, CEO of NEC X. “Their leadership in decentralized identity is creating the foundational layer for a more trusted and secure digital future. We are excited to support their journey as they redefine the standards for digital interaction and data privacy.”
Indicio is already gaining significant market traction. In a pioneering use case with SITA and the Government of Aruba, the company’s technology enables travelers to enter the country using a secure digital travel credential on their smartphone instead of a physical passport. The company’s technical excellence has also been recognized with multiple awards, including the EIC Award 2022 and selection as a finalist in the DHS Digital Design Challenge 2020.
Indicio provides the technology and services for enterprises to build and deploy decentralized identity solutions across travel, finance, enterprise applications, education and more. Looking ahead, the company is building the infrastructure for a new era of digital trust, extending verifiable identity to AI agents and connected devices to ensure secure, permissioned data access and interaction.
For more information on Indicio, visit https://indicio.tech.
About Indicio
Indicio provides everything needed to build efficient, powerful, and simple decentralized solutions for a new era of digital trust. With Indicio Proven, travel, hospitality, financial services, and enterprise customers can integrate portable, authenticated biometric credentials into existing workflows enabling seamless border crossing, rapid, remote KYC, and protection against synthetic identity fraud and deepfakes — without requiring biometric data to be stored.
Indicio Proven’s Verifiable Credential technology delivers seamless efficiency and transformative security. Data can be shared and verified without direct integrations. Authentication no longer depends on centralized databases, passwords, or third-party identity providers. Verifiable digital identities can be assigned to connected devices, robots, and AI agents, providing the mutual authentication, permissioned data access, and secure interaction needed for these critical technologies to maximize their potential and benefits. By making trusted data and identity the engine of growth, Indicio delivers secure, interoperable solutions that reduce friction, cut costs, and scale markets. For more info, visit https://indicio.tech/
About NEC X
NEC X is an innovation powerhouse and curator of disruptive startups backed by the global technology leadership of NEC. Leveraging 125 years of IT and network technologies expertise, NEC X’s startup-focused approach transforms visionary ideas into commercial successes that revolutionize how we work and live. Since its inception in 2018, NEC X has helped launch and grow more than 180 startups.
Their Silicon Valley programs – Elev X! Ignite and Elev X! Boost – equip early-stage startup founders with the tools to fast-track their tech development and adoption. Elev X! fuels startup success from inception to launch, connecting innovators with NEC’s 45,000 patents; global network of partners, mentors and advisors; reach into 55+ international markets; and $8 billion R&D ecosystem.
For more information, visit https://nec-x.com and https://www.elev-x.com.
About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation has established itself as a leader in the integration of IT and network technologies while promoting the brand statement of “Orchestrating a brighter world.” NEC enables businesses and communities to adapt to rapid changes taking place in both society and the market as it provides for the social values of safety, security, fairness and efficiency to promote a more sustainable world where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential.
For more information, visit NEC at https://www.nec.com.
NEC is a registered trademark of NEC Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Other product or service marks mentioned herein are the trademarks of their respective owners. ©2025 NEC Corporation.
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