Would you describe government data as accessible? One DC startup is making it so.

ID.me won a GSA contract (its second gov win) to allow its 1M users access to personal services and benefits from the federal government. Those users will be able to use their online identity credentials created and validated by ID.me to access sensitive data from agencies participating in Connect.Gov. We snapped Blake presenting the company at TechBuzz this summer. ID.me co-founder Matt Thompson, right, with co-founder Blake Hall, says the contract value is based on how many people use the service.

Many people haven’t been using benefits and resources offered by agencies because the process is so clunky with agencies using their own siloed methods. The GSA contract will allow them to use a single sign-on through ID.me. The 4-year-old, 50-person startup based in McLean beat out larger companies. Teachers, members of the military, and other groups who receive retail discounts have used ID.me to validate their identity to online retailers.

A $2.8M grant from the Commerce Department’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace pilot program allowed ID.me to enhance its technology. Agencies didn’t accept ID.me's commercial tool, so the company’s engineers had to learn an older standard accepted by agencies. ID.me is also one of three companies at the highest FICAM level of security for remote identity proving. Matt, here with his team at a Nats game this year, says ID.me will expand its identity services into healthcare, finance and state governments.