We build the infrastructure between identity and access.
KeyShare is an identity verification and credential delivery company. We make the KeyShare Puck — a patent-protected NFC device that verifies who someone is, then delivers the credential they need. A room key. A building pass. A government-issued digital ID. One device. One tap. Three verticals.
A multi-vertical identity company.
KeyShare is built on a simple observation: the way we prove who we are and receive credentials hasn't kept up with the way everything else works. Hotel guests still wait in check-in lines. Building employees still carry plastic badges. Citizens still present paper documents at government offices. Every one of these interactions requires a person to verify an identity and manually deliver a credential. KeyShare replaces that process with a single NFC tap.
The team that built KeyShare isn't new to this problem. Before founding the company, the founding team led key engineering functions for Continental's automotive keyless entry platform — the secure access technology deployed across 120 million vehicles for Ford, GM, FCA, Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Renault, Peugeot, and Volkswagen. That work — building secure identity and access systems at global scale — is the engineering foundation that KeyShare is built on.
Continental agreed. KeyShare was incubated inside Continental Automotive — the first prototypes were built within the company — before spinning off as an independent company in 2018. Continental remains an investor and shareholder: a signal that the organization that built the automotive access ecosystem believed this technology had a second life outside the car.
Today, KeyShare operates across three verticals with $7.2M in seed funding, four granted US patents, and recognition from Phocuswright, CES, HITEC, Forbes, and NEF. The result: a hotel guest taps and walks to their room. A building employee enters without a badge. A citizen proves their identity without paper. The process that used to take minutes takes seconds — and the friction that used to be invisible becomes obviously unnecessary.
Key Facts
| Legal entity | PassiveBolt, Inc. (Delaware) |
| Product brand | KeyShare |
| Origin | Incubated at Continental Automotive. Spun off 2018. Continental remains investor & shareholder. |
| HQ | Ann Arbor, Michigan |
| EU presence | Germany & France |
| Funding | $7.2M seed (Jan 2025) |
| Team | ~25 people (and growing) |
| Verticals | Hotel · Government · Physical Access |
| Products | KeyShare Puck · GEP · VEP · KeyShare Connect · DPI Stack |
| Patents | 4 US patents granted · additional pending |
| Standards | ISO 18013-5 · FIPS 140-2 · OSDP v2.2 · W3C VCs · FIDO2 |
The team.
Three co-founders from the automotive secure access and hardware engineering world. 45+ combined years of experience. That engineering foundation now powers KeyShare.
Kabir Maiga
Chief Executive Officer15+ years across engineering, investment banking, and entrepreneurship. Former Technical Lead of automotive keyless entry systems at Continental. MSE from University of Michigan Ross; BS Electrical Engineering.
Simon Forster
Chief Technology Officer15+ years in embedded software engineering. Former Software Manager for automotive keyless entry systems at Continental. Based in Germany. Leads platform engineering. MBA; BS Mathematics.
Mike Johnson
Chief Product Officer15+ years in hardware engineering. Expert in power electronics. Formerly in Advanced Engineering at Hella. Leads Puck hardware development. MS & BS Electrical Engineering.
Advisors with leadership experience at
Microsoft · Marriott · citizenM · Sonesta · SALTO · IDEMIA · Tech5 · Wyndham · Latch · Paveon
Meet the full team →One platform. Three verticals.
The same identity verification and credential delivery platform — configured for each industry's specific requirements.
The KeyShare Puck.
A patent-protected NFC device that sits at the point of service — a hotel front desk, a building lobby, a government enrollment office. A person taps their phone. The Puck reads their digital ID or wallet credential, verifies it cryptographically, and delivers the right credential in seconds. No app. No account. No waiting.
The Puck is the physical embodiment of KeyShare's paradigm: identity is the credential, and everything else — the check-in line, the badge office, the enrollment queue — is friction that shouldn't exist.
Four granted US patents protect the core technology, with additional applications pending. The Puck's cryptographic operations use FIPS 140-2 validated libraries. Biometric face matching (in visitor management mode) is processed on-device with zero cloud transmission and zero data retention.
Principles, not features.
Identity is the credential.
We believe a person's verified identity should be sufficient to receive any credential — a room key, a building pass, a government-issued digital ID. The mechanisms that sit between identity and credential exist because verification was manual and slow. Digital identity verification makes them optional. The Puck is the device that makes that transition real.
Privacy is architecture, not policy.
We don't collect what we don't need. Biometric face matching happens on-device — face data is processed in RAM and discarded in under one second. It never reaches the cloud. It's never stored. Consent is obtained before capture, not after. Data minimization isn't a policy we follow — it's a property of how our systems are built. See our Security & Trust Center.
Standards over proprietary.
Every cryptographic operation uses published, peer-reviewed standards implemented in validated libraries. ISO 18013-5. OSDP v2.2. W3C Verifiable Credentials. FIDO2. We don't just implement standards — we help shape them. KeyShare is active in W3C, ISO, DIF, IEEE, and the Trust Over IP Foundation, and is a founding member of the NFID Foundation.
Headquartered in Ann Arbor. Building globally.
Our team works across the U.S. and Europe — engineering the infrastructure between identity and access wherever it's needed.
Headquarters
Ann Arbor, Michigan
2723 S. State St, Suite 150Ann Arbor, MI 48104
United States Get Directions
European Operations
Germany & France
Platform engineering, government programs, and standards participation across the EU.
Legal Entity
PassiveBolt, Inc.
Delaware corporation.
Incorporated 2018.
Press & recognition.
For media inquiries, contact …
See all press →Build what's next.
KeyShare is building the infrastructure between identity and access — across hotels, governments, and buildings. The founding team comes from automotive secure access engineering at Continental and Hella — we bring that rigor to every product we ship. If you're an engineer, designer, or operator who wants to work on identity verification, NFC hardware, embedded systems, digital credentials, or multi-vertical platform architecture, we'd like to hear from you.
See it in action.
The KeyShare Puck verifies identity and delivers credentials — in seconds. Schedule a live walkthrough.
Last reviewed: March 2026