Contactless biometric payment startups PopID and PayEye continue expansion efforts

PopID has announced the further expansion of its face biometrics-based payment system in the U.S., the BBC reports.

The company’s solution allows users to sign up via the company website, upload their face photograph to enroll their biometrics, then link the account to a bank card. Upon entering an affiliated shop, a dedicated facial recognition system will match the face with the card, authorizing the payment.

“It’s just another way to identify yourself,” PopID CEO John Miller told the BBC. “The [digital] picture [taken at point of sale] is destroyed immediately, and the data isn’t shared with anyone.”

The Los Angeles-based startup also offers a hand gesture recognition tipping tool, designed to link certain hand movements with the percentage of how much you intend to tip.

The new face biometric system is currently utilized by roughly 70 restaurants and cafes in the U.S., and while it does not offer mask detection capabilities yet, Miller said they will be implemented in future updates.

Iris recognition startup PayEye goes international

Wrocław-based fintech startup PayEye has received a PLN 0.5 million (US$133,247) grant from The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development to promote the biometric payments brand in foreign markets.

The investment is part of the “Go to Brand”, a project realized within the Smart Growth Operational Programme, the European Union’s largest program for research development and innovation creation.

PayEye’s iris recognition technology allows users to register their biometric pattern at a PayEye Partner or at home, then use it in an affiliated store to pay for contactless transactions.

“We chose the iris because all research indicates that the iris, because of its uniqueness, is the safest biometric method of identifying a user,” commented PayEye CEO Krystian Kulczycki. “We are the first in the world because in finance, and more specifically in payments, eye biometrics has not been used.”

Now, the investment will allow PayEye to expand beyond Poland for the first time.

“We feel that we can become a Polish export brand that will be recognizable in the world. We have our own solution, which combines the achievements of science with state-of-the-art technology, so we have something to boast about,” Kulczycki concluded.

PayEye operates under license from the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. The company recently partnered with Advapay to support its retail biometric payments with a digital wallet solution.

Article Topics

authentication  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  contactless biometrics  |  PayEye  |  PopID  |  retail biometrics