FacePhi launches to Euronext, plus Ping An, Fingerprint Cards, BrainChip, Nuance in biometrics stocks news

FacePhi has begun trading on the Euronext Growth exchange in Paris at a value of €7.98 (US$8.65 per share) per share, giving the facial biometrics company a total valuation of approximately €105.95 million ($114.91 million) at opening.

The company will continue trading on the Alternative Stock Market (MAB) in Spain under a dual listing formula. FacePhi has traded on the MAB since 2014. With the new listing, FacePhi is planning to increase its visibility to attract new institutional investors.

FacePhi CEO Javier Mira and company President Salvador Marti attended the traditional ringing of the opening bell at the Euronext exchange to mark the occasion.

Mira lauded “the excellent business opportunities that are opened to attract new investors internationally through this operation in the French stock market. Quoting on both exchanges will allow us to increase our presence in the face of European investors and strengthen our position as leading players in the national and international market.”

FacePhi recently announced it had the highest-growth value on the MAB during 2019, as its shares raced from €0.75 to €5 each. During 2019, FacePhi recorded growth of 82.88 percent, with a net turnover of €8.2 million ($8.89 million), and EBITDA of €3.11 million ($3.37 million), an impressive increase of 143.3 percent compared to 2018.

The company now serves more than 40 healthcare and financial sector clients, with over 10 million users in dozens of countries.

Ping An relies on technology as epidemic hits revenue

The coronavirus outbreak is having a substantial impact on the financial results of Ping An Insurance, but the Shenzhen-based giant plans to weather the stormy conditions with a focus on technology, Bloomberg Quint reports.

Ping An President Xie Yonglin discussed the situation with reporters in a recent post-earnings call. Net income was below estimates for the year, while new business growth slipped from 7.3 percent in 2018 to 5 percent in 2019. The epidemic is expected to have a large impact on life insurance sales during the first quarter of 2020, particularly for those types of complex products that normally require in-person communication to sign a contract. All life insurance activities, from client interactions to agent training, as well as many banking services, have been moved online.

Operating profit for the company’s business unit responsible for facial recognition and blockchain technologies dropped by 40 percent in 2019, two years after reaching profitability in 2017, according to the report.

Analyst Leon Qi of Daiwa Capital Markets Hong Kong Ltd said that the decline poses “questions about the sustainability of its tech investments,” and that the firm sees “the business models in Ping An’s technology business as not yet matured.” Qi advises investors to carefully and individually consider the company’s tech subsidiaries.

Overall, Ping An’s revenue from technology increased 27 percent during the year.

FPC announces implementation and launches promo video

Fingerprint Cards has reached 419 mobile devices with its fingerprint sensors embedded, as the Huawei Y7p has been launched with the FPC1511 integrated, according to a company Tweet.

The company has also produced a new promotional video for its Touchless 2.0 biometric facial and iris authentication platform. The video depicts a woman completing the enrollment process and then authenticating her biometrics to unlock her mobile device in different situations, including wearing sunglasses. The video claims Touchless 2.0 is a secure technology with fast enrollment, effortless verification, and that in addition to sunglasses it works conveniently with gloves.

A new line of biometric door locks featuring FPC technology were also recently launched.

BrainChip to present on edge and emerging AI applications

An upcoming EcoCast webinar on “Supporting Emerging AI, ML, and Data Science Initiatives” will be presented by BrainChip on February 27, 2020, the company has announced.

BrainChip COO Roger Levinson will discuss the company’s Akida neural processing engine for edge applications in the context of emerging AI, ML, and data science initiatives, with co-presenters from Anaconda and Run:AI.

“Artificial intelligence and machine learning tools are critical to the growth of AI. In addition, the utilization of those tools to solve the next generation of AI problems at the Edge requires coupling them with next generation Hardware solutions such as BrainChip’s Akida technology,” states Levinson. “Industries such as surveillance, autonomous vehicles, visual and acoustic analysis, and Internet of Things are among the current leaders in deploying edge AI/ML, but others are quickly following to capitalize on the benefits of these technologies.”

Nuance presenting at RSA

Nuance Communcations is demonstrating its omni-channel biometric authentication platform at RSA Conference 2020, showing off key features including The Lightning Engine, which identifies speakers in as little as half of a second to begin personalizing the experience, and ConversationPrint, which compares speech patterns to detect known fraudsters.

The platform also includes synthetic speech detection and behavioral biometrics.

Nuance also announced today that it has been recognized in the 8th Annual Cyber Defense Magazine Awards for “Most Innovative Biometrics”.

Article Topics

artificial intelligence  |  behavioral biometrics  |  biometrics  |  BrainChip  |  FacePhi  |  facial recognition  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  fingerprint sensors  |  iris recognition  |  Nuance Communications  |  PING AN Tech  |  stocks