ISELIN, N.J., April 27, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Hemen Vimadalal, co-founder and CEO of 1Kosmos, has been named a finalist for the Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2026 New Jersey Award by Ernst & Young LLP (EY US). Now in its 41st year, the Entrepreneur Of The Year program celebrates the bold leaders who disrupt markets through the world’s most groundbreaking companies, revolutionizing industries and uplifting communities.
An independent panel of judges selected Hemen among other finalists based on his entrepreneurial spirit, purpose, company growth and lasting impact in building long-term value.
“This recognition reflects the journey we’ve been on to rethink how identity works in a world where both humans and AI agents initiate transactions and access systems,” said Hemen Vimadalal, CEO and co-founder of 1Kosmos. “Our mission has always been to provide a friction-less way to verify the real person behind every interaction and create a trusted, fraud-proof and re-usable identity for business and consumer use cases. I’m grateful to our customers, partners, and team who have helped bring that vision to life and scale it across industries where trust is critical.”
Founded in 2020, 1Kosmos provides a platform that unifies identity proofing, biometric authentication, and passwordless access into a single system that binds digital access to a verified individual rather than a credential. As AI agents increasingly perform actions on behalf of users, the platform extends identity verification and authentication to ensure every action — human or machine — is tied to a verified individual.
The company serves enterprises across financial services, healthcare, telecommunications, public sector, and other industries where identity assurance is non-negotiable. Under Hemen’s leadership, 1Kosmos has grown from an early-stage startup to a global identity platform provider, raising more than $72 million in venture funding and supporting millions of authentication events daily across its customer base.
Entrepreneur Of The Year honors business leaders for their ingenuity, courage and entrepreneurial spirit. The program celebrates original founders who bootstrapped their business from inception or who raised outside capital to grow their company, transformational CEOs who infused innovation into an existing organization to catapult its trajectory, and multigenerational family business leaders who reimagined a legacy business model to strengthen it for the future.
Regional award winners will be announced on June 4 during a special celebration in Jersey City and will become lifetime members of an esteemed community of Entrepreneur Of The Year alumni from around the world. The winners will then be considered by the national judges for the Entrepreneur Of The Year National Awards, which will be presented in November at the annual Strategic Growth Forum®, where high-growth CEOs, Fortune 1000 executives and investors converge to shape the future of business.
About Entrepreneur Of The Year®
Founded in 1986, Entrepreneur Of The Year® has celebrated more than 11,000 ambitious visionaries who are leading successful, dynamic businesses in the US, and it has since expanded to nearly 80 countries and territories globally.
The US program consists of 17 regional programs whose panels of independent judges select the regional award winners every June. Those winners compete for national recognition at the Strategic Growth Forum® in November where national finalists and award winners are announced. The national overall winner represents the US at the World Entrepreneur Of The Year® competition. Visit ey.com/us/eoy.
About 1Kosmos
1Kosmos enables remote identity verification and passwordless multi-factor authentication for workers, customers, and residents to securely engage with digital services. By unifying identity proofing, credential verification, and strong authentication, the 1Kosmos platform prevents identity impersonation, account takeover, and fraud while delivering frictionless user experiences and preserving the privacy of users’ personal information.
The company conducts millions of authentications daily for major banks, telecommunications providers, technology and service providers, healthcare organizations, and retailers worldwide. 1Kosmos has raised more than $72M in venture capital funding, and is headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey. For more information, visit www.1kosmos.com and follow us on LinkedIn.
Media Contact:
Marc Gendron
Marc Gendron PR for 1Kosmos
617-877-7480
marc@mgpr.net
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/9057bc16-ccbb-48f8-bcfd-1b57d0161cd1
