JanRain has always been on the forefront evangelizing OpenID, the decentralized authentication method for the new Web, as a founding member of the OpenID Foundation. But the company is not a non-profit, and aims to turn the deployment of online identification technology in enterprise environments into a viable business.
JanRain just got a vote of confidence from three U.S.-based venture capital firms: we’ve learned that the startup has recently raised a $3.25 million Series A round of financing led by DFJ Frontier with participation from RPM Ventures and Anthem Venture Partners.
JanRain’s flagship product is RPX, an SaaS platform for on-site acceptance of OpenID accounts for registrations and other activities, which as you may know can just as well be your MySpaceID, Windows Live ID or your regular Facebook, Google, Yahoo! account. It’s worth noting that RPX is a solution that works both ways, as it also enables users to publish their activities on client’s websites to multiple social networks.
According to JanRain, its solution is already being used on more than 170,000 websites today, including those of Sears, Kmart, FOX News, Scout24, Universal Music Group and EMI Music.
The software comes in three flavors: a free version that supports up to 6 interface providers and includes basic profile data, and two professional versions, the cheapest one starting at $100 a year. There’s a clean overview of available plans and corresponding pricing on the RPX product website.
JanRain is really one of the only horses in this race, but the adoption of OpenID hasn’t exactly been stellar so far. Investors are now betting millions on the assumption that the Portland, Oregon company, founded in 2005, has what it takes to effectively mass market and sell authentication systems to website publishers based on OpenID and other online identity technologies.
Would you?
First!
Hmmm! who wants to trust any one location with their life’s secrets?
Luckily, OpenID is decentralized, so you don’t have to.
“.. that the Silicon Valley, founded in 2005 ..” – presumably Silicon Valley firm?
I hope that OpenID can be commercialized; it looks like JanRain is making a great start. They’ve been instrumental in getting OpenID accepted by the wider web community, and demonstrating commercial viability is a vital part of that. It’s great to see large enterprises engage with them.
Great news for Janrain!
Also, how has OpenID adoption NOT been stellar? Nearly every major consumer tech company has adopted it, from Google, Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, Six Apart, Automattic, and even Facebook! Nit to mention the pilot program with the US Federal Government! Criticism of OpenID is fine, but I’m curious what “stellar” adoption would look like!
Oh, lastly: since when did Portland, OR become part of Silicon Valley?!
Portland seems to be becoming an open source Silicon Valley, which is kind of interesting. Need to add it to my itinerary next time I’m over.
I’m happy to have Portland get credit for the good parts of the Valley.
Yeah, fixed that, apologies
Congratulations Janrain!
Exactly right, it’s about time someone got credit for how important Open ID is to enterprise computing. I’ve been saying this for a while now:
http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=159
So I hope JanRain does well, but it’s going to take a big player to really validate the market. Let’s hope that happens soon.
Best,
Dion Hinchcliffe
Well done JanRain! Onwards and upwards with OpenID!!!
Appreciate the words of support. Looking forward to great things for OpenID in 2010. If you have any feedback for JanRain or the OpenID Foundation, we’re always open to input and recommendations.
Congrats and continued success JanRain!
Great Work ….
Ease and convinece for the Humans.