EyeVerify acquired by Ant Financial

Ant Financial Services Group, the operator of Alipay, have acquired EyeVerify, Inc. the creator of Eyeprint ID, a patented, secure mobile eye verification technology.

Although the companies didn’t disclose the sale price, Bloomberg is reporting that Ant is paying about $70 million for the company, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be named because the details are private.

“The acquisition of EyeVerify is a critical part of our effort to make bold, yet thoughtful moves to continually enhance user trust, safety, and experience,” said Jason Lu, vice president of fraud risk management at Ant Financial. “It is an important extension of our efforts to accelerate the global adoption of secure mobile payments and allows us to improve our overall risk management.”

Ant Financial and EyeVerify entered into a licensing agreement earlier this year in which Eyeprint ID was integrated into Ant Financial’s payment authentication platform. This acquisition will allow the technology to be integrated into even more Ant Financial products and secure hundreds of millions of consumers’ online data and transactions.

EyeVerify will continue to grow its global customer base, and aims to provide financial institutions worldwide with the mobile biometric identity and authentication technology.

“Ant Financial’s vision to turn trust into wealth for small and micro enterprises as well as consumers worldwide resonates deeply with our own core mission,” said Toby Rush, founder and CEO of EyeVerify. “Our payment-grade biometric platform is already trusted by over three dozen banks and technology leaders, and we look forward to helping even more people across the financial spectrum access digital services with security and convenience.”

EyeVerify will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant Financial and continue to be based in Kansas City.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  Alibaba Group  |  biometrics  |  eyeprint  |  eyeverify