Facial recognition startup Blink Identity raises $1.5M

Texas-based startup Blink Identity announced today that it raised $1.5M USD in a seed round led by Sinai Ventures with the participation of Live Nation, Techstars, and other live entertainment related funds.

The company, founded by Mary Haskett and Dr. Alex Kilpatrick, completed the Techstars Music Accelerator in Los Angeles this past spring, and is focused on bringing face recognition technology to live event venues and commercial spaces. Live Nation announced earlier this year that Ticketmaster will pilot Blink Identity’s facial recognition technology for uses including admission to event venues.

“Blink Identity has created a fast, accurate and user-first identity service for live entertainment venues, solving the bottleneck problem and creating a preferential experience for consumers and venue owners alike,” explains Jordan Fudge of lead investor Sinai Ventures. “We believe that this technology is widely applicable, and that Mary and Alex’s experience developing biometric identification technology for the Department of Defense uniquely qualifies them to lead the charge.”

Blink Identity’s identity-in-motion technology identifies people at a full walking speed. The face recognition firm reports that it can verify the identity of 60 people per minute walking past a camera with facial recognition at full speed. Not requiring people to stop to apply identity verification enables the technology to be applied to events with tens of thousands of event-goers.

In May Live Nation told VentureBeat it will test the system in corporate buildings and venues and then asses its benefits to decide on the details of its use. It also suggested the technology could be used to facilitate “deeper consumer relationships.”

Article Topics

access control  |  biometrics  |  Blink Identity  |  facial recognition  |  investment