Jarek Sygitowicz, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Authologic
Today we're meeting Jarek Sygitowicz, Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Authologic. They specialise in being the global eID Hub making it easy for businesses with KYC/AML requirements to bridge the gap between traditional verification methods and the future of digital identity.
Over to you Jarek - my questions are in bold:
Who are you and what's your background?
My name is Jarek Sygitowicz and I'm co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Authologic, the company supporting regulated businesses with the transition to digital IDs. I've been working with my co-founders Krzysztof Klimczak and Marek Rogozinski for many years. This isn't our first rodeo! In 2013 we co-founded ZenCard together, a solution that enabled businesses to offer loyalty and rewards programs to customers using their existing payment cards. It was a huge learning curve for all of us and ultimately a successful one. The company was acquired by Poland's biggest bank, PKO BP, in 2017. Just a few years later, we were back at it again, co-founding Authologic to build a solution for businesses in the face of rapid eID acceleration.
What is your job title and what are your general responsibilities?
As Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer, my role spans a huge range of responsibilities. Day to day, I am across many things - from overseeing our growing number of client partnerships and developing key relationships, to exploring new market potential, and refining our long-term strategic vision. There's never a dull moment! I'm often working closely with people from product, marketing, sales and engineering, facilitating collaboration and supporting everyone in the drive towards our shared mission.
Can you give us an overview of your business?
Current KYC processes are at risk, with photo and video verification becoming increasingly vulnerable to AI-identity fraud. eIDs offer a promising alternative - enabling a more secure, streamlined and efficient approach to KYC that enhances fraud protection and improves customer experience. However, eID adoption can be complex and many businesses are struggling to make the transition. That's where we come in. At Authologic, we're making eID adoption easy. Our global eID Hub integrates and orchestrates multiple different eIDs in a single API-led solution, while supporting existing KYC processes (after all, these won't disappear overnight!)
By seamlessly integrating with businesses' existing KYC infrastructure, we enable them to harness the full benefits of digital identity while maintaining KYC/AML compliance, and without having to reinvent the wheel.
Interoperability is at the heart of what we offer, and it's this that sets us apart. We orchestrate the seamless management of the new (eIDs) with the old (existing verification methods), making it simple for businesses to begin using eIDs alongside their existing processes, and supercharging their KYC.
Tell us how you are funded?
We're VC funded, with backing from an amazing group of investors, including Peak Capital, OpenOcean and Y Combinator. Our most recent funding was an $8.2 million Series A. The investment we've received is supporting our plans to expand into new markets, while continuing to build on our product offering and strengthen our existing partnerships.
What's the origin story? Why did you start the company? To solve what problems?
eIDs are coming. Regulation is accelerating across Europe and the UK. Mandates like the eIDAS 2.0, which require every EU member state to offer some form of digital ID by the end of 2026, are making adoption a 'when' not 'if' for all regulated industries. For fintech, this means businesses are having to adapt, and fast. But there are huge benefits to be reaped. With AI-generated fraud and deepfakes posing an increasing risk to traditional ID verification, the enhanced security and privacy offered by eIDs will be a game changer. The biggest challenge is that the KYC landscape - and now eIDs, too - is extremely fragmented. There are a vast number of different vendors, solutions and regulatory requirements to contend with - and these vary widely country-to-country.
As a team, we've witnessed the success of eID adoption in Poland. Approximately 80% of Poles use eIDs, and a further 25% are using mObywatel, a national identity wallet. We wanted to help replicate the impact that this successful eID adoption was having in Poland for businesses worldwide, by building a solution that would make it simple for companies to integrate and utilise digital IDs, while maintaining KYC and AML compliance. We know that eID adoption is not an overnight switch. But with regulation accelerating the necessity of digital IDs, we're building a solution that will support businesses to bridge the gap between traditional and digital ID verification.
Who are your target customers? What's your revenue model?
We're working with a range of different customers - including many banking and fintech companies - who often have complex regulatory requirements. Unlike a lot of traditional models within the KYC space, we work on a tiered approach (rather than demanding a set number of annual checks, for example). We don't offer a one-size-fits all approach when it comes to implementation, either. While we do have some out-the-box solutions, we also allow for customisation and whitelabelling. We understand that some customers want to enhance their KYC and eID management, but don't necessarily want these back-office operations on show to users. We know our customers value what we do as we recently had this feedback from one of our financial services customers, "Good things happen when technology simplifies life, not complicates it."
If you had a magic wand, what one thing would you change in the banking and/or FinTech sector?
If I had a magic wand, it would be to do away with paper and plastic based documents. You don't expect customers to photograph their credit card when making purchases online, so imagine if your customers didn't have to verify their identity with photographs, either.
What is your message for the larger players in the Financial Services marketplace?
The threats to online security within the current identity infrastructure are rapidly increasing the need for eIDs, thanks to the growing sophistication of AI-generated images and deepfakes. Meanwhile, regulations like eIDAS 2.0 are mandating support for eIDs on a global scale. Digital IDs will soon no longer be a nice-to-have but a regulatory requirement. Users are also showing support; the adoption of eIDs is skyrocketing and increasing onboarding conversion rates for financial services by as much as 60%. Businesses simply cannot afford to fall behind.
Now is the time to put a robust eID strategy in place and establish the interoperable infrastructure needed to effectively address user demand, mitigate fraud and adopt digital identity verification alongside existing KYC, SCA and AML processes.
Where do you get your Financial Services/FinTech industry news from?
There are some fantastic publications that I often turn to to stay up to date on the latest industry news and read interesting insights from other leaders in the field, including Fintech Profile, The Fintech Times and The Paypers. Biometric Update is also one of my go-to publications for keeping abreast of all things digital identity - especially as the landscape is constantly evolving!
What FinTech services (and/or apps) do you personally use?
There are probably too many to name here! But my everyday saviours are Revolut, Wordcoin, Coinbase and Apple Wallet.
What's the best new FinTech product or service you've seen recently?
I've been impressed by the work nSave is doing to improve access to financial services through their global account solution. Financial exclusion should not still be such a prevalent issue in 2025, and these guys are helping consign it to history.
Finally, let's talk predictions. What trends do you think are going to define the next few years in the FinTech sector?
Apple's launch of their Digital Credentials API and Identity Document Services framework was a big defining moment. I believe this is one of the biggest signals yet that eIDs are going mainstream. Businesses across the globe urgently need the infrastructure and regulatory roadmap to support them in transitioning to digital IDs. Collaboration on a major scale is needed to coordinate eID adoption across a vast number of regions and industries - and building interoperability into eID management will be vital to achieving this. Those who wait to act will be left behind. We cannot sleep on the opportunity to build a strong, interoperable eID landscape and harness the significant benefits it will bring.
Thank you very much, Jarek!
Read more about Jarek Sygitowicz on LinkedIn and find out more about Authologic at authologic.com.