ONESPAN

T. Kendall Hunt founded VASCO Data Security in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois in 1991, with a focus on hardware-based authentication for enterprise clients.

The core product was the Digipass token — a small device that generated one-time passwords, making it dramatically harder for attackers to compromise bank accounts even with stolen credentials. Banks adopted it widely because it worked and it was defensible.

The company went public on NASDAQ in 1997 under the ticker VDSI, then relisted as OSPN after the 2018 rebrand.

OneSpan sells software licenses, SaaS subscriptions, and hardware security products to financial institutions and enterprises. Its revenue has three main streams: identity verification software, e-signature solutions (OneSpan Sign), and mobile application security.

The transition from hardware-heavy revenue toward recurring SaaS revenue has been the dominant story of the past decade. Banks pay for the platform.

Enterprises pay for e-signature workflow automation.

Digipass hardware authentication tokens — the product that built the company, still used by hundreds of banks globally. OneSpan Sign — a legally binding e-signature platform integrated with identity verification.

OneSpan Identity Verification — AI-powered document and biometric verification for remote onboarding. Mobile Security Suite — SDK for protecting mobile banking apps from fraud and reverse-engineering.

OneSpan targets regulated industries — especially banking and financial services — where the cost of fraud and identity theft creates genuine willingness to pay for security. Its strategy is to expand from authentication into a broader digital agreement platform, embedding identity verification directly into signing workflows.

The global expansion into EMEA and APAC markets has been central to growth since the 2010s.

Competing against well-funded identity security platforms from Okta, Ping Identity, and Microsoft has been difficult. OneSpan's hardware legacy was a strength in the early days but became a drag as enterprises moved to app-based and cloud-native authentication.

Revenue growth has been inconsistent, and the company has struggled to communicate a clear narrative to investors about whether it is a hardware company, a SaaS company, or something in between.

As a publicly traded company since 1997, OneSpan is owned by institutional shareholders. Major holders have included T.

Rowe Price, BlackRock, and various index funds. The founding Hunt family maintained significant stakes for many years after the IPO.