In an increasingly digital world, trust is the most valuable currency. Verifying someone’s identity online remains costly, cumbersome, and vulnerable to fraud. Gataca was born to change that. From her early days at MIT to becoming a leader in digital identity solutions, Irene shares how her passion for technology turned into a mission: building the identity layer the Internet has been missing. In this interview, we explore the problem Gataca solves, how their unique focus on ID Wallets redefines user experience, and where the company is heading in the coming years.
1. Tell us a bit about yourself, and how you got the idea for Gataca.
From programming on an MS-DOS computer as a child to advising multinationals on IT strategy for over a decade, technology has always been at the heart of my life and career. The idea for Gataca was born at MIT, where I was researching decentralized architectures to fight online identity fraud. What began as an academic project quickly turned into a mission: to build the Internet’s missing identity layer.
2. What problem/ opportunity do you address, and for which customers?
Digital economies cannot function without trust. Yet today, verifying who someone is online remains costly, cumbersome for users, and vulnerable to fraud. At the same time, governments worldwide are driving the adoption of ID Wallets—a new generation of digital identity based on global standards, that will have internet-scale impact. At Gataca, we enable regulated industries to integrate ID Wallet–based authentication and verify anyone online in just one click—whether for onboarding customers, processing payments, ensuring age assurance, or enabling seamless digital access.
3. What is your solution/ USP, and who do you compete with?
Gataca is building the Trust Operating System for regulated digital economies. Our SaaS platform enables organizations to issue and verify digital credentials from ID Wallets instantly, with full compliance to eIDAS2 and all emerging global standards. For end-users, we provide a secure ID Wallet that puts them in control of their data.
Our USP is compliance, user experience, and privacy by design: we make digital identity both effortless and regulation-ready. We compete with players like Okta, Yoti, or Sumsub, but our wallet-centric approach sets us apart—we’re more scalable, offer a dramatically better user experience, and are aligned with the regulatory future.
4. What are the industry trends or market shifts in your space, and can you point us to any relevant research?
We are at a turning point. The EU is mandating the rollout of European Digital Identity Wallets under eIDAS2, with pan-European adoption expected by 2026. At the same time, governments in the UK, US, and across Europe are enforcing stricter age verification requirements, which demand trusted digital identification. In the US, more than 15 states have already digitized driver’s licenses into Apple and Google Wallets, following the same international standards that power the EU initiative. Even Google is moving forward by integrating verifiable credentials into its browser ecosystem. And according to Gartner, by 2026 over 500 million people will be using digital identity wallets.
All of this makes one thing clear: digital identity is no longer optional—it is becoming the backbone of the internet.
5. What is your company’s current stage and traction?
We’re an early-stage company. Gataca’s technology has already been deployed in small production environments with governments, banks, and universities across Europe, and in large scale production environments accross media companies. We’ve secured top-tier partnerships, and are part of several EU flagship projects shaping the European Digital Identity framework. Our wallet is fully eIDAS2-compliant and tested in large pilots. We’re now scaling commercial adoption.
6. Your plans for the next 6-18 months, and how can our network help?
We’re currently fundraising to accelerate our growth, and we welcome introductions to investors with deep expertise in regulated industries and cybersecurity. With a mature, certified product already in market, our immediate focus is to establish leadership in the iGaming sector across Europe and the US—a high-demand entry point that also serves as a strategic gateway into financial services. In parallel, we are scaling our age assurance solution to meet fast-growing regulatory requirements in the UK, US, and EU.
7. What’s on your bookshelf or podcast app? Your favourite place for a coffee or a drink?
I’m an avid night reader with eclectic tastes—ranging from favorites in geopolitics and neuroscience to the stories of startup founders, with the occasional futuristic or space novel as a guilty pleasure. And when it comes to coffee, nothing beats the simple joy of a 5 a.m. cup during a jet-lagged trip to the US, savored in the quiet of a friend’s home.
Gataca’s story reminds us that technological innovation is not just about code, but about vision and trust. With scalable solutions that prioritize user privacy, Gataca is laying the groundwork for the digital identity of the future. Irene offers a privileged perspective on the challenges and opportunities of the digital era, inspiring us to reflect on how technology can transform the way we connect and verify ourselves online.