Biometrics sales boost earnings reports from public companies amid pandemic disruption

Aware, RealNetworks and Ping An have reported gains from their face biometric technologies among their 2020 results, while Nxt-ID has paid down debt, and Kabn North America has appointed a dozen experts to a new advisory board. Fingerprint Cards and Veritone have earnings announcements coming up.

Aware results lifted by biometric software subscriptions growth

Aware has reported increases of 38 percent sequentially and 40 percent year-over-year in its fourth quarter 2020 revenue, and five-fold growth in subscription revenue for its biometric software, solutions and services.

The company booked $3.4 million in revenue during Q4, up from $2.5 million, primarily due to higher income from perpetual licenses and subscriptions. Aware’s operating loss in the quarter was $1.9 million, similarly improved from $2.5 million in Q3 but higher than the $1.7 million operating loss in the same quarter a year ago, which the company attributed to higher operating expenses and investments. Net loss was $1.6 million, or $0.08 per diluted share.

For the full year, Aware had revenues of $11.3 million, down from $12.2 million in 2019, primarily because of lower services revenue from a multi-year international project signed with a systems integrator in 2018. Operating loss for 2020 was $9.4 million and net loss was $7.6 million, compared to losses of only $4.2 million on operations, but $8.3 million net, in 2019.

“2020 marked a period of continued transformation for our company as we strengthen our position as a market leader in mobile biometrics and middleware despite the unprecedented challenges associated with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” comments Aware CEO Bob Eckel. “Operationally, we made significant progress executing our multi-pronged growth strategy by streamlining our offerings and readying them to align with subscription and consumption-based models, expanding strategic partnerships with industry leaders across multiple verticals, and reinvigorating the commercial side of the business. As a result, we’ve nearly doubled the pipeline, quintupled high-margin recurring subscription revenue, and have completed Aware’s first acquisition.”

Eckel also says Aware is evaluating opportunities and partnerships to gain greater market access and scale and grow its customer base.

SAFR biometrics drive 2020 revenue gains for RealNetworks

RealNetworks has reported revenue for continuing operations during its full fiscal 2020 of $68.1 million, a 3 percent improvement from 2019, driven by a 110 percent increase in revenue from the company’s key growth initiatives, which includes SAFR facial recognition and its mobile games.

Net loss from continuing operations was $4.8 million, or $0.13 per diluted share. RealNetworks’ net loss had been $15.1 million in 2019, and though the sale of Napster contributed gains in both years, it contributed less in 2020, so the overall improvement from operations was actually more than the $10.3 million improvement reflected in the net figures.

In the fourth quarter, the company reports revenue of $17.6 million, a 6 percent increase from the previous quarter and 2 percent from Q4 2019.

Net income was $8.1 million, $6.1 million from continuing operations, compared to a net loss in the same period a year earlier.

Nxt-ID slashes debt to invest in positioning

Nxt-ID has reduced its term debt by $5 million with a prepayment bringing its outstanding principal down to $5.7 million.

Nxt-ID CEO Vincent S. Miceli said the move will save close to $700,000 annually in interest, and enable the company to invest more capital in its business. This investment will in turn allow the company to whether the disruption caused by the pandemic and position itself to bring new products to market and reach new distribution channels.

The company has now repaid a total of $10.7 million, or 65 percent of its Term Loan.

Kabn stands up industry advisory board

Kabn North America has established an industry advisory committee to support and advise its management team on growth and business initiatives for its biometrically-verified self-sovereign identity platform.

Members of the inaugural 2021 Kabn North America Industry Advisory Committee include Sheldon Inwentash, Rob Anson, Neil Stiles, Alen Paul Silverrstieen, Nicole Rodrigues, Ruth McCartney, Craig Asano, Steven Glaser, Lauren Linton, Mark Pearlman, Dominic Vogel, and Ben Kessler, who will chair the committee.

“We are excited and honored to be able to work with such a talented, experienced and diverse group of executives who believe in Liquid Avatar and the value of digital identity,” says Ben Kessler, senior advisor and chair of KABN North America’s Industry Advisory Committee. “As a group, our mandate will be to support the Company and its efforts while providing industry advice to help accelerate its growth.”

Ping An gets earnings boost from facial recognition, investments

Earnings for Ping An have beaten expectations, as improved investment performance shrank its drop in net income, prompting an analyst to declare the worst is probably past the company, Bloomberg reports.

Operating profit from the company’s tech business, which provides face biometrics and blockchain solutions, increased by a whopping 91 percent, following a decrease in 2019 on higher costs.

Ping An’s core life insurance business lost ground, meanwhile, even as the sector expanded.

Upcoming earnings announcements

Fingerprint Cards will present its Q4 2020 results on February 16, with CEO Christian Fredrikson and CFO Per Sundqvist jointly reporting in a webcast presentation.

Veritone will hold a conference call to deliver its fourth quarter and full-year 2020 results on March 4.

Article Topics

Aware  |  biometrics  |  facial recognition  |  financial results  |  Kabn Systems  |  NXT-ID  |  PING AN Tech  |  RealNetworks  |  SAFR  |  stocks