healthKERI

healthKERI is a healthcare-focused digital identity and data-security company that applies the open-source Key Event Receipt Infrastructure (KERI) protocol to secure the exchange of health data. Its stated approach, described as "sign everything," applies cryptographic digital signatures to every transaction so that data is only sent or ingested when valid signatures are present, removing shared secrets such as usernames, passwords and X.509 certificates. The company frames its value proposition around a "Five Rights of Secure Health Data" framework — verifying the right data (authenticity and integrity), right source (organization validation), right role (person, client or server authorization), right purpose (approved use) and right route (approved channel and endpoint) — on every data transaction.

The product line centers on healthKERI Gateways and a Secure Service Edge (SSE) offering, which replace assertion-based access controls with cryptographic binding between actors and actions and authenticate each device, server or application at the network edge. Documentation describes RACK (Routing, Authentication and Confidentiality with KERI) gateways, distributed as a Docker-based starter kit, which can secure data flows between systems such as Mirth instances, route traffic through healthKERI's SaaS cloud routers, establish long-lived digital signatures for data provenance, and provide zero-trust access to web portals. Claimed characteristics include no certificate management, post-quantum secure identifiers, phishing resistance, end-verifiable and channel-agnostic authentication, FHIR readiness, and integration without rip-and-replace changes to existing systems.

Founding story

Co-founder and CEO Jared Jeffery had worked on healthcare interoperability for over a decade, including roles helping people gather paper medical records and work at KLAS Research. He has said he was diagnosed with brain cancer roughly two years before an August 2024 interview and, after that experience, decided to accept the risks of starting a business. Around the same time he was introduced to KERI, an open-source, open-standard technology already adopted in other industries; the company brought the protocol's inventor, Samuel Smith, Ph.D., on board and formed healthKERI.

Business model

healthKERI sells a SaaS-delivered security layer to healthcare organizations and to vendors that sell into care organizations, positioning cryptographically verifiable protections as a way for customers to pass security risk assessments and close deals. Deployment combines gateway software (distributed as Docker images and compose files) with a hosted cloud routing service, and is presented as an overlay that integrates with existing systems through lightweight API calls rather than requiring replacement of current infrastructure.

Revenue is derived from a SaaS offering, including cloud routing services, sold to healthcare organizations and their technology vendors.

Traction

As of July 2024 healthKERI had launched its first proof of concept with Health Sciences South Carolina, demonstrating the secure sending of data using cryptographic digital signatures. It is described in outside coverage as a venture-backed startup, and its listed private-sector backers include TitanBlock Limited and Digital Trust Venture Partners LLC.

Latest developments

An August 2024 startup profile reported the first proof of concept, launched in July 2024 with Health Sciences South Carolina. A third-party digital identity project directory profile, current as of a September 2025 dataset release, lists the project as launched and records affiliations with DirectTrust and Civitas Networks for Health.