Unifonic, the Saudi Arabia-based customer-engagement platform, has formed a strategic partnership with Ideem, a US authentication-security firm, to advance digital identity across the Gulf, the two companies announced. The deal pairs Unifonic’s regional reach in business messaging with Ideem’s device-bound authentication technology.
The partnership extends a period of rapid expansion for Unifonic. One of the Middle East’s best-known communications-platform providers, the company supplies tools that let businesses reach customers across SMS, voice, WhatsApp and other channels, and was selected for Saudi Arabia’s Unicorns Program supporting high-growth local technology firms. Earlier in June 2026, it acquired personalization specialist Segmentify to deepen its push into AI-driven, or “agentic,” marketing across the MENA region.
Ideem supplies the security layer. The company specializes in what it markets as bank-grade passkeys — login credentials cryptographically bound to a user’s device. Its technology is FIDO2-compliant and FIPS 140-3 certified, and is designed to replace SMS one-time passwords (OTPs) with phishing-resistant, device-bound authentication that runs largely in the background. Ideem has integrated its device-binding with identity platforms including Ping Identity’s PingOne DaVinci and has deployed its security technology in digital-wallet products in other markets.
The tie-up targets a familiar weak point in the region’s digital services. Across the GCC, banks, government portals and consumer apps still rely heavily on SMS one-time passwords to verify users — a method increasingly exposed to phishing, SIM-swap fraud and message interception. Governments across the Gulf have also made digital identity a pillar of their economic diversification plans, from Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 to the UAE’s national digital strategy, raising the stakes for authentication that can withstand modern fraud.
By building device-bound authentication into the channels that businesses already use to reach customers, Unifonic and Ideem are pitching the partnership as a way to make stronger digital identity simpler to adopt — particularly for organizations that lack the resources to build such systems in-house. The approach mirrors a wider global shift away from passwords and SMS codes toward passkeys, which large technology platforms have been rolling out over recent years.
Neither company disclosed financial terms of the agreement. The partnership adds to a growing list of moves by regional technology firms to position the Gulf as an early adopter of passwordless, standards-based digital identity.
