Valimo, the Finnish mobile identification service provider, has signed agreement with the second largest Finnish mobile operator Elisa. The agreement allows Elisa’s 2.5 million mobile customers in Finland and another 340 000 in Estonia to use mobile phone as everyday electronic identification method. With Valimo’s solution the customers can login to internet services with a single PIN code, and also digitally sign documents. Thus mobile phone can replace web banking credentials now used extensively for secure identification in the region.

Valimo develops software to secure and perform transactions in both mobile and fixed network environments, offering solutions for digital signing, authentication, and validation. Valimo’s service uses PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) and works on all handsets and devices, which use a SIM card as the user’s secret key is stored on the card. Identification or confirmation request is sent onto the user’s screen, and the user will use his/her own PIN code to verify. The service requires country specific registration of the person’s identity and the SIM card. In Finland the registration is done by the police authorities.

Valimo’s services have been well received , and the company recently announced the the Turkish operator Turkcell’s customers recently exceeding 1,8 million mobile transactions.

Several Finnish companies have been included as finalists for the 2008 Europe 100 list of the of most promising ventures Red Herring is once again publishing. The companies are Aito Technologies, Floobs, Muxlim, nCore, Severa, Whatamap.com, Widisys, and Valimo Wireless. The winners will be declared at Red Herring Europe 2008 event in Malta on April 14-16th.

While the nomination gives good visibility to the companies, it’s worth a note, though, before going boasting around that the reputation Red Herring has is not that good everywhere. There’s a whole lot of suspected monkey business going on related to the company. According to rumors (see ValleyWag’s posts for example), Red Herring’s CEO and Chairman, Alex Vieux, doesn’t pay his bills (nor employees’ salaries). In addition, he’s got the U.S. tax officials of IRS on his back, suspected of having $2 million in unpaid payroll taxes according to ex-employees. Mr. Vieux has also been said to to have fled French and Swiss police also interested to investigate possible unpaid taxes. A good sign is neither that Red Herring has lost quite a many board members over the last couple of years.

Although not all the rumors may be true, it nevertheless seems the company is in trouble and it’s unsure if it’s able to turn its course. As a takeaway it’s good to enjoy the publicity the nomination brings, but at the same time it’s worthwhile to assess what kind of association to have with Red Herring in particular and keep one’s ears open.

The GSM Association (GSMA) has selected Valimo Wireless and Xtract as finalists for the Mobile Innovation Global Award.

Valimo develops software to secure and perform transactions in both mobile and fixed network environments, offering solutions for digital signing, authentication, and validation.

Xtract promises to optimize marketing and advertising in the web 2.0 and mobile environments with automated software solutions. It had the seventh fastest growth rate in Deloitte Fast 50 Finland 2007.

Via GSMA news.