VoiceAI providing voice recognition for Indonesia pension distribution scheme

Jun 26, 2018, 11:59 am EDT | Chris Burt

Categories Biometrics News | Voice Biometrics

Voice recognition technology from Shenzhen-based startup VoiceAI is being used by Taspen, which manages retirement funds for Indonesian civil servants, as part of a program to distribute payments to pensioners with biometric identity verification, EJ Insight reports.

The program also includes fingerprint and facial recognition, and provides payments to 2.5 million retirees. Pensioners can speak a single sentence into their phones to be identified by the company’s VoiceKey product.

“After our analysis of the project, we offered our voiceprint recognition solution, which enables retirees to receive their pension without having leaving their home, while at the same time easing the workload of banks and the manpower input,” said VoiceAI Co-founder and CEO Kevin Li Yatong.

Indonesian authorities were not convinced of the technology’s accuracy and reliability when they began working with the company in early 2017, according to EJ Insight. VoiceAI has been testing and collecting voice data since the system went online in May, and expects to complete the collection in three to six months. At the same time, it is considering a proposal for the project’s second phase of development.

VoiceAI was founded in 2016, and has a staff of 16. It has been focussed on the mainland Chinese market so far, but has registered an office in Hong Kong to work on algorithm research and global market development. The company was crowned champion of the Chinese University of Hong Kong Entrepreneurship Competition this year, and raised “several million yuan” in angel funding, and plans to raise “a few million US dollars” in pre-series A funding later this year.