NEXT Biometrics announces 6 million fingerprint sensors shipped and full-year revenue growth

Earnings for NEXT Biometrics in Q4 2018 were in line with the previous quarter’s results, with continued improvement in gross margin, according to preliminary financial results announced by the company in a business update.

NEXT CEO Ritu Favre, CFO Knut Stålen, and Chief Sales and Marketing Officer Alain Faburel presented the update, noting the company’s strategic priorities including a central focus on producing biometric payment cards, with sampling of its One Touch Flex CL sensor for payment in Q2 2019.

Preliminary results for Q4 include a reduction of NEXT’s EBITDA loss excluding options by NOK 5 million (US$590,000), and a year-over-year reduction in cash used for operations of NOK 9 million ($1.06 million). The company also reduced target costs by 20 percent in the quarter.

Recent market highlights for NEXT include a second call-off order for 30,000 sensors from Tactilis under a previously announced purchase agreement, and purchase orders from India. NEXT also expects to significantly increase its sensor shipments to Fujitsu in 2019. IOM was recently revealed as a customer of NEXT and Tactilis for a series of trials

In the presentation, the company notes that in 2018 it signed four new agreements with tier-2 payment card manufacturers in the APAC region, and that it is in advanced discussions with three more tier-2 customers, and engaged in a payment card specification project. As of January, NEXT’s efforts in government ID have yielded firm contracts or advanced talks totaling 140,000 sensors for the Indian market.

The company will also continue to serve the access control and notebook market segments. It surpassed 6 million sensors shipped in Q4.

For the full year, NEXT’s revenue increased by 10 percent, according to the preliminary results.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  financial report  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Next Biometrics