The TACEO Network, active in World ID’s biometric verification system for over 18 million users, enables organizations to share digital infrastructure while safeguarding sensitive data. When verifying a new user’s iris, Sam Altman’s World ensures encryption through the entire process.
Since 2022, the Austrian startup TACEO has been developing this solution. On Thursday, the Graz-based company launched the TACEO Network, a private execution layer for shared digital infrastructure that encompasses identity, finance, and AI agents. This cryptographic infrastructure already supports World ID, managing biometric verification for more than 18 million users across 160 countries.
The structural problem TACEO addresses is the need for organizations to engage in shared digital systems—payment rails, identity networks, multi-party financial workflows—without exposing sensitive parts to other participants or a central operator.
Typically, sensitive processing is managed internally: internal systems handle identity checks, fraud scoring, and routing logic, while other tasks are performed on shared infrastructure. This approach concentrates risk, increases compliance burdens, and limits the benefits of shared systems.
TACEO’s solution is a private execution layer beneath shared infrastructure, using advanced cryptographic techniques. Multiparty Computation (MPC) enables nodes to jointly compute a function on encrypted data without revealing unencrypted inputs. Zero-Knowledge Proofs allow verification of correct computation without exposing the data. TACEO combines these approaches into coSNARKs—collaborative SNARKs enabling distributed nodes to process encrypted data and generate verifiable proof of correct computation, maintaining privacy and auditability.
Founded in 2022 by cryptography researchers from Graz University of Technology, TACEO is led by CEO Lukas Helminger, a former cryptography researcher and lecturer. Co-founder and Chief Scientist Christian Rechberger, a professor at TU Graz, co-designed the Poseidon hash function, now a standard in zero-knowledge cryptography.
In July 2025, TACEO raised a $5.5 million seed round led by Archetype VC with participation from a16z CSX, Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto accelerator arm, which TACEO joined in 2024.
The TACEO Network operates through distributed node operators, including Nethermind and the Faculty of Electrical Engineering at Czech Technical University in Prague. Nodes are spread across the US, Europe, and Asia, ensuring no single operator controls the computation, protecting data security.
“For decades, we faced a choice: keep sensitive data private in one organization or make it visible in shared systems,” said Helminger. “With the TACEO Network’s launch, that trade-off is eliminated. Computation can proceed through independent operators while data remains encrypted.”
The updated figure of 18 million users, up from 14 million in the July 2025 seed round, indicates growth in World ID’s user base. The figures, though not independently verified, align with World’s public expansion.
Beyond biometrics, TACEO’s aspirations extend wider. As stablecoins advance digital settlement and AI introduces new use cases, there’s increasing demand for shared digital rails to handle sensitive operations without centralization.
TACEO’s private execution layer is positioned as the infrastructure that allows financial institutions, identity providers, and AI systems to coordinate on shared networks without centralizing sensitive data. Whether the network achieves large-scale enterprise adoption is the next challenge TACEO faces.