Glide Identity: RSAC 2026 Innovation Sandbox Profile

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This profile was compiled in March 2026 using AI tooling guided by security product strategy guidance from Lenny Zeltser's MCP server. The analysis was performed by AI without direct human validation, to demonstrate the capabilities of AI agents guided by an expert framework. Outside this demo, a human analyst would conduct iterative conversations with the AI agent to arrive at more accurate conclusions.

Overview Problem Product Competition Traction Team Trust RSAC Criteria Readiness Risks

Executive Summary

Glide Identity replaces SMS one-time passwords with SIM-anchored cryptographic authentication. The company leverages private keys embedded in billions of SIM cards to verify identity without passwords or codes. Backed by $30M+ in total funding led by Crosspoint Capital Partners and strategic telco investors, Glide has partnered with Google Cloud, T-Mobile, and Verizon for its first commercial deployments in the U.S. Its positioning at the intersection of telecom infrastructure and AI-era identity threats makes it a strong Innovation Sandbox contender.

Company Overview

Field	Detail	Evidence
Founded	2024 (Glide Identity entity; founder active in telecom since 2017 via ClearX)	Company website; ClearX history
Headquarters	San Francisco, CA; R&D in Tel Aviv, Israel	BusinessWire press release
Funding	$30M+ total: $20M Series A (Oct 2025, led by Crosspoint Capital Partners) + $5M RSAC Innovation Sandbox award + earlier capital	PR Newswire Series A; BusinessWire RSAC
Stage	Series A	PR Newswire
Employees	~24	Company website
Key Investors	Crosspoint Capital Partners (lead), Fidelity International Strategic Ventures (board seat), Singtel Innov8, Amigos Venture Capital, Sir Ronald Cohen	Glide blog

Investor cybersecurity track record:

Crosspoint Capital Partners: Raised a $1.3B debut fund focused exclusively on cybersecurity, privacy, and infrastructure software. Portfolio includes Forescout Technologies, Absolute Software, WideField Security, and Command Zero. Managing Director Andre Fuetsch is the former CTO of AT&T, where he launched the first standards-based 5G commercial service. Crosspoint website; PR Newswire
Singtel Innov8: $350M corporate VC arm of Singtel. Cybersecurity portfolio includes SentinelOne, BitSight, Shape Security (acquired), and Silverfort. Six unicorns, six IPOs across full portfolio. Tracxn
Fidelity International Strategic Ventures (FISV): Principal Erik Wiesner-Mostenicky sits on Glide’s board. PR Newswire

Problem Definition and Market Opportunity

SMS OTP is the dominant second factor for authentication worldwide. It is also fundamentally broken. SIM swap attacks, phishing, and interception render SMS codes vulnerable to fraud at scale. The FTC reported U.S. consumers lost $12.5 billion to scams in 2024, a 25% year-over-year increase. AI-powered attacks including deepfakes and voice cloning are accelerating the problem.

The market timing aligns with GSMA Open Gateway, an industry initiative now backed by 86 operator groups representing 300+ networks and 80% of global mobile connections. Open Gateway standardizes telco APIs (via the CAMARA project) for number verification, SIM swap detection, and device authentication. This creates the infrastructure layer Glide builds on. The addressable market encompasses the billions of dollars spent annually on SMS OTP systems, plus the broader identity verification and authentication market.

Authentication friction also impacts commerce. Glide cites 70% online shopping cart abandonment linked partly to checkout trust and verification friction. (Company claim, unverifiable at this specific rate.)

Product Capabilities

Glide’s platform sits between telco networks and enterprise applications, abstracting GSMA Open Gateway / CAMARA APIs into developer-friendly authentication services.

MagicalAuth is the flagship product. It uses Silent Network Authentication (SNA) to verify a user’s identity through their SIM card’s cryptographic keys without sending codes or requiring user action. Authentication completes in under one second. It is the first commercial deployment of T-Mobile’s SIM-based Network Authentication API in the U.S. (Confirmed, company claim, verifiable via T-Mobile partnership.)

SuperPasskey layers FIDO2 passkeys on top of SIM-anchored verification. It adds verifiable credentials for login, step-up authentication, and account recovery. Designed for both humans and AI agents. (Confirmed, company claim.)

Glide-Out handles payment authentication, targeting checkout abandonment by replacing OTP-based 3DS flows with SIM-based verification. (Confirmed, company claim.)

Glide-In provides NFC/QR-based identity verification for physical interactions. (Confirmed, company claim.)

Technical architecture: The platform runs on Google Cloud infrastructure. Glide deploys “OG Connect,” its Telco Identity Server, which enables MNOs to expose Open Gateway services. SDKs are available for iOS, Android, and Web. REST APIs require as few as two API calls for integration. The platform is FIDO2 certified, GSMA Open Gateway aligned, and claims GDPR and CCPA compliance. No phone numbers are stored. (Confirmed, company claims.)

Competitive Positioning

Glide operates in a space with both direct and adjacent competitors.

Direct competitors in SIM/network-based authentication:

IDlayr (formerly tru.ID): Offers mobile possession-factor verification using network-grade cryptographic security. Most directly comparable to Glide’s approach.
Prove: Claims 1,500+ enterprise customers and 1B+ identity tokens. Focuses on phone-centric identity but relies more on phone intelligence signals than SIM cryptography.

Adjacent competitors in identity verification:

1Kosmos: Decentralized identity wallet with FedRAMP High authorization. Biometric-first approach.
ID.me: Document + biometric verification aligned with NIST 800-63-3. Strong government sector presence.
Veriff, Onfido, Jumio, Sumsub: Document-centric verification platforms.

Glide’s differentiators (Inferred from multiple sources):

Google Cloud partnership: Integration with Firebase phone verification gives access to 3 million app developers as a distribution channel. No other SIM-auth startup has this.
Multi-carrier coverage: Partnerships with T-Mobile, Verizon, Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Vodafone, Masorange, and others provide broader carrier reach than competitors.
GSMA alignment: Built natively on Open Gateway/CAMARA standards rather than proprietary carrier integrations.
Cost predictability: API-based pricing replaces volatile per-SMS OTP costs.

The risk is that Google, AWS, or the carriers themselves could build competing abstraction layers. Glide’s head start and GSMA relationships provide a moat, but it is narrow. (Inferred.)

Go-to-Market and Traction

Glide’s GTM strategy operates on two tracks: direct enterprise sales and platform distribution through Google Cloud.

Current status (as of March 2026):

MagicalAuth live in beta with T-Mobile and Verizon in the U.S. General availability planned for Q1 2026. PR Newswire Authenticate 2025
Production pilots with “Fortune 500 financial institutions.” Commercial deployments planned throughout 2026. BusinessWire RSAC (Company claim, unverifiable. No named enterprise customers disclosed.)
“Payment giants, the largest banks, and fintechs are actively piloting.” PR Newswire (Company claim, unverifiable.)
Snapchat mentioned as an early application partner for the Google Cloud integration. Glide blog (Confirmed, company claim, partially verifiable.)

Key partnerships:

Google Cloud: Strategic infrastructure and go-to-market partner. Glide’s SIM authentication is integrated into Google Cloud’s Firebase phone verification service. Joint demonstration at MWC 2025. GSMA CTO Alex Sinclair called it “a major step change.” (Confirmed, third-party.)
T-Mobile: Anup Chathoth, Director of Products at T-Mobile, stated Glide “accelerated our capability of going to market with solutions based on Open Gateway architecture.” (Confirmed, third-party.)

Revenue: Not publicly disclosed. Pre-revenue or early revenue stage is likely given beta status as of late 2025.

Team and Credibility

Eran Haggiag, Founder and CEO: Serial entrepreneur with 20+ years in software, algorithmic trading, telecom, and blockchain. Co-founded ClearX (formerly Clear Blockchain Technologies), a telecom settlement platform that raised $17M from Eight Roads, Telefonica Innovation Ventures, Deutsche Telekom’s Telekom Innovation Pool, HKT, and Singtel Innov8. ClearX worked with 17+ telcos on blockchain-based settlement. Previously co-founded Meme Video (acquired by Somoto, listed on TASE), Whitenoise (algorithmic performance marketing), and Pegasus Smart Trading (CTO). Served as CTO of Israel Direct Insurance. Advisory board member of JFrog ($1B+ valuation). MWC Barcelona speaker page; Crunchbase; TopioNetworks

Haggiag’s ClearX background is directly relevant. The telco relationships he built there (Deutsche Telekom, Telefonica, Singtel, Vodafone) reappear as Glide’s carrier partners. Singtel Innov8 invested in both companies.

Team composition: 16 employees with “over 80 years of combined experience” across telecom, banking, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and fintech. Operations span five countries: U.S., Israel, Spain, South Africa, and UAE. Glide about page (Company claim.)

Key gap: No named CTO, CISO, or other C-suite leaders are publicly identified beyond Haggiag. For a security company, the absence of a visible security leadership hire is notable. (Not publicly disclosed.)

Trust Readiness

Dimension	Status	Evidence
Compliance	Claims GDPR and CCPA compliance; GSMA certified	Glide website (Company claim)
Certifications	FIDO2 certified server; FIDO Alliance member	PR Newswire Authenticate 2025
Privacy architecture	Claims no phone numbers stored; privacy-by-design	Glide docs (Company claim)
SOC 2 / ISO 27001	Not publicly disclosed	—
Penetration testing	Not publicly disclosed	—
Bug bounty	Not publicly disclosed	—

The FIDO2 certification and GSMA alignment are meaningful trust signals. SOC 2 and ISO 27001 status remain undisclosed, which is common at this stage but will be expected by enterprise buyers.

RSAC Judging Criteria

RSAC does not publish an official judging rubric. The five criteria below are extrapolated from press descriptions of what judges evaluate: the problem a company addresses, the originality of its technology, its go-to-market strategy and team, market validation, and product demonstration.

Criterion	Score (1-5)	Assessment
Problem/Market	5	SMS OTP is a known-broken standard used by billions. AI-era threats amplify the urgency. GSMA Open Gateway creates a once-in-a-decade infrastructure shift.
IP Originality	3	The underlying technology (SIM-based network auth, CAMARA APIs) is an industry standard, not proprietary. Glide’s value is in abstraction, integration, and go-to-market, not novel cryptography. IDlayr and Prove work in similar territory.
GTM/Team	4	Haggiag’s deep telco network from ClearX directly enabled Glide’s carrier partnerships. Google Cloud partnership is a strong distribution advantage. Team is small but well-connected.
Validation/Revenue	3	Strong partnership signals (Google Cloud, T-Mobile, GSMA endorsement). But no named enterprise customers, no disclosed revenue, and beta-stage product. Fortune 500 pilots are unverifiable claims.
Product/Demo	4	MagicalAuth demonstrated at MWC 2025, live in beta with U.S. carriers. Simple API integration story. GA planned for Q1 2026. SuperPasskey and Glide-Out extend the product line.

Overall RSAC Fit: 19/25. The problem is urgent and well-understood. The Google Cloud and carrier partnerships lend credibility beyond what most Innovation Sandbox startups can demonstrate. The main weakness is limited evidence of enterprise adoption and revenue traction.

Startup Readiness Assessment

This eight-dimension assessment appears in the comparison matrix on the main page. It evaluates broader startup readiness using dimensions from the security product analysis framework. Five dimensions overlap with the RSAC criteria above. Three are added: funding efficiency, category clarity, and incumbent defensibility.

Dimension	Score (1-5)	Assessment
Problem Clarity	5	SMS OTP is a known-broken standard used by billions. AI-era threats and GSMA Open Gateway create a clear, urgent replacement opportunity.
Capability Depth	4	FIDO2 certified, documented SDK and REST APIs, multiple product modules (MagicalAuth, SuperPasskey, Glide-Out). Technical architecture is publicly documented.
Market Timing	4	GSMA Open Gateway adoption by 86 operator groups creates a once-in-a-decade infrastructure shift. Regulatory and AI-threat tailwinds reinforce the urgency.
Team Credibility	3	Solo visible founder (Haggiag) with deep telco network from ClearX and a prior $17M raise. Serial entrepreneur, but no named CTO or CISO and limited executive team visibility.
GTM Proof	3	Google Cloud and T-Mobile partnerships are strong signals. However, no named enterprise customers, no disclosed revenue, and the product remains in beta.
Funding Efficiency	4	$30M+ total for approximately 24 employees. Strategic telco investors (Singtel Innov8, Crosspoint with former AT&T CTO) provide value beyond capital.
Category Clarity	4	SIM-based authentication as a replacement for SMS OTP is a clear, understandable category. Buyers know the problem it solves and can compare it against existing OTP costs.
Incumbent Defensibility	2	Google, AWS, or carriers themselves could build competing abstraction layers. GSMA Open Gateway is an open standard by design, limiting proprietary lock-in.

Overall: 29/40.

Key Risks

Platform dependency: Heavy reliance on Google Cloud and carrier partnerships. If Google builds its own abstraction layer or favors another partner, Glide loses its primary distribution channel.
Carrier commoditization: GSMA Open Gateway is designed to be an open standard. As more carriers expose these APIs directly, the aggregation/abstraction layer Glide provides may become less differentiated.
Thin team: 16 employees across five countries is lean for a company pursuing global carrier partnerships and Fortune 500 enterprise sales simultaneously.
No disclosed revenue or named customers: “Pilots with Fortune 500 financial institutions” is a common startup claim. Without named references, the commercial traction story relies heavily on investor and partner credibility.
Competitive encroachment: Prove (1,500+ customers) and IDlayr operate in overlapping territory. Larger IAM players (Okta, Ping) could add SIM-based auth to existing platforms.
Founding date ambiguity: Various sources list the company as founded in 2020, 2023, or 2024. The Glide Identity entity appears to be a recent pivot or spinout from Haggiag’s earlier ClearX work in telecom blockchain. This is not inherently negative but warrants clarification.

Sources

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