Vuzix raises over $11M and Datasonic secures $1.7M contract as biometrics market sees growth ahead

Publicly traded biometrics companies and their partners have been updating investors and the media about their sales and prospects as world economies reopen. Vuzix and Synaptics have provided business updates, as an award for OneSpan and a contract extension for Datasonic and a compensation update for Idex Biometrics were announced, while Ipsidy has a new CEO.

New Ipsidy exec sees inflection point

Former Visa executive and new Ipsidy CEO Phillip Kumnick worked with the Indian government on the integration of biometrics for different kinds of transactions under the Aadhaar program, Kumnick told Proactive in an interview available through YouTube.

Kumnick was appointed to replace former chief executive Phillip Beck, who continues as Chairman of the Board, weeks ago.

The new CEO also discussed the background of Ipsidy’s new COO Philip Broenniman, and the inflection point that the company sees with ever-more transactions moving online.

Vuzix provides update after capital raise

Vuzix has provided an update on its recent events and future outlook to shareholders with a letter, including the sale in May of five million shares of common stock at $2.25 each to raise $11.25 million in capital.

The letter from Vuzix President and CEO Paul J. Travers says that April was a strong month for the company in terms of sales, with order frequency and size increasing, along with the company’s customer base.

Travers appeared on a Maryland ABC affiliate recently to discuss Vuzix’ M400 Smart Glasses and some use cases involving telemedicine. Opportunities in telemedicine and waveguide-based solutions for OEMs are highlighted.  Volume production of the M4000 smart glasses will begin this summer.

OneSpan authentication platform awarded by Frost & Sullivan

OneSpan has received a Company of the Year Award from Frost & Sullivan in the Best Digital Identity and Risk-Based Authentication Platform category for its comprehensive portfolio of solutions, close collaboration with partners and emphasis on customer experience, according to a company announcement.

Frost & Sullivan analyzed OneSpan’s Trusted Identity (TID) platform, and recognized its unique technologies for authentication, threat detection, and user experience orchestration as differentiators.

“OneSpan’s TID platform provides digital identity verification and risk-based authentication solutions equipped with anti-fraud and e-signature capabilities to combat the ever-evolving hacker model,” states Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst, Danielle VanZandt. “OneSpan’s TID platform layers important variables, such as multi-factor credentialing, behavior monitoring, and advanced adaptive authentication, and automatically generates industry compliance reports.”

Datasonic wins government contract in Malaysian home base

Datasonic has received a contract from the Malaysian Ministry of Home Affairs related to card issuance by the National Registration Department (NRD) worth RM7.3 million (US$1.7 million), The Edge Markets reports.

Analysts suggested in May that Datasonic is in line to potentially take on several new government contracts, precipitating a rise in its share price. At the time, analyst RHB Research set a target share price for Datasonic of RM1.84, which has now been increased again to RM1.86.

The likelihood of more contracts with the Malaysian government was reiterated again by the analyst.

The NRD contract is an extension of one originally running from the middle of 2019 to the middle of 2021, with an initial value of RM28.79 million ($6.7 million).

Idex Biometrics board members take renumeration in shares

Board members of Idex Biometrics have taken shares as renumeration instead of cash, acquiring a total of 441,982 shares, the company announced.

The change in renumeration was originally announced in May. Total share capital in the company is now NOK 117,565,819.05 ($12.3 million) between 783,772,127 shares, for a nominal value of NOK 0.15 each.

Synaptics presents to investors and joins Amazon voice project

Synaptics is anticipating full-year 2020 revenues of $1.332 billion, down from $1.472 billion in 2019, but with annual long-term growth of 4 to 6 percent, according to a new model contained in the company’s virtual investor day presentation.

The presentation covers the company’s efforts in PCs, device displays, IoT and edge system-on-chip (SoC) technologies, as well as the high-speed video interface and automotive markets. In several segments, Synaptics sees growth of near 10 percent in the future.

The company has also joined Amazon’s Voice Interoperability Initiative to contribute to the development of support for consumer choice among multiple voice services in a single product, Synaptics Smart Edge AI VP of Marketing Vineet Ganju writes in a blog post. Ganju writes that as a leader in SoC, far-field voice software and multiple wake word technology, Synaptics is unique in being able to offer a complete system solution.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Datasonic  |  financial results  |  Idex Biometrics  |  Ipsidy  |  OneSpan  |  smart glasses  |  stocks  |  Synaptics  |  Vuzix