TransCrypts, the San Francisco-based blockchain startup specializing in secure, user-controlled credential verification, has raised $15 million in a seed funding round led by Pantera Capital. The round also included Lightspeed Faction, Alpha Edison, Motley Fool Ventures, and returning investors like Mark Cuban and Protocol Labs.
The funding will support the expansion of TransCrypts’ platform beyond employment verification into healthcare and education, allowing users to store, encrypt, and share verified records directly with authorized parties. On-chain hashes ensure authenticity while keeping personal data private.
CEO Zain Zaidi described the platform as “self-sovereign identity,” empowering individuals to control their personal information without depending on institutions. With HIPAA compliance achieved, TransCrypts plans to allow patients to carry verified medical histories and graduates to share diplomas securely, streamlining interactions across healthcare and education sectors.
Currently serving over 4 million users and 450 enterprise clients, TransCrypts aims to use the new capital to enhance real-time verification tools and expand into regulated industries. The move addresses rising concerns over identity theft—Americans lost $43 billion to fraud in 2023—and the surge in deepfake scams, which have risen more than 1,800% year-over-year.
Zaidi credits a personal experience—misplaced transcripts that almost cost him a grad school opportunity—as inspiration for building the platform. The seed funding positions TransCrypts to become a leading blockchain-based solution for secure, verifiable digital identity.
