Idex Biometrics raises $27.5M, Precise Biometrics, Fingerprint Cards, Nuance report earnings

Idex Biometrics has raised NOK 229 million (US$27.5 million) to invest in expansion and general corporate purposes through to commercially scalable volumes in a private placement which was oversubscribed by multiple times, allocating 83,214,674 new shares at NOK 2.75 (US$0.33) each.

A recently-announced marketing and sales agreement with a global payment solutions provider is the latest step towards the commercialization of biometric payment cards for Idex.

The placement received strong interest from high-quality institutional investors based in Norway, the Nordics, and internationally, according to the announcement.

After the completion of the private placement the company’s total share capital is NOK 137.3 million ($16.3 million) divided among 915,361,422 shares with a par value of NOK 0.15 each.

CFO Derek D’Antilio, a primary insider in the company, subscribed for 76,000 shares. Following the private placement, Robert Napier Keith and close associates hold 166,659,914 shares in Idex Biometrics, or 18.1 percent of the company, according to an official disclosure.

Idex also completed multiple funding rounds in 2019.

Precise Biometrics enters 2021 in stable financial position

Precise Biometrics recorded net sales of SEK 22.5 million (US$2.7 million) in the fourth quarter of its fiscal 2020, and SEK 92.3 million ($11.1 million) for the year, and entered 2021 in a stable financial position, according to a company announcement.

Though that represented a significant drop off compared to the fourth quarter of 2019, it was actually slight increase in net sales for the year, Precise booked an operating loss of SEK 5.8 million ($ million), compared to an operating profit of SEK 0.7 million a year earlier. Full-year earnings were a loss of SEK 12.2 million ($1.5 million), or SEK 0.03 per share, compared to earnings of SEK 1 million ($120,600) and flat EPS for FY 2019.

Significant events for Precise during the year mostly centered around its biometric access control platform YOUNiQ, which has continued in 2021 with a recent deal signed by Clarkson University.

The company finishes 2020 with a slightly stronger balance of cash and equivalents than at the end of 2019, after improving its cash flow from operating activities.

Fingerprint Cards poised for breakthrough in two consumer markets

Fingerprint Cards booked revenues of SEK 1,255.7 million ($151.4 million) for full-year 2020, down 14 percent from a year earlier, after the company recorded non-cash write-downs of SEK 340.6 million ($41 million) in the fourth quarter, much of which was related to the Delta ID acquisition in 2017. Further write-downs were related to lower average selling prices for under-display fingerprint sensors.

FPC’s operating result for the full year was negative SEK 365.8 million ($44 million), which loss increased just slightly more than the write-down amount compared to 2019, when the company lost SEK 14.4 million ($1.7 million).

“Fingerprints is the market leader for capacitive sensors for smartphones, with a share that represents more than one-third of the global market,” comments FPC CEO and President Christian Fredrikson. “The capacitive fingerprint sensor is a proven and popular technology in the mobile industry, largely because of its reliability, performance, and cost efficiency. The fact is that some of Fingerprints’ customers once again have a preference for capacitive sensors as opposed to under-display sensors. Our new, thin sensors, designed for side-mounting, are particularly popular.”

Fredrikson also said he expects supply chain challenges to persist, but that the biometrics market could make major inroads in two major consumer markets this year, payment cards and PCs, and that Fingerprint Cards is well-positioned for both.

Highlights during the past quarter included an order of 100,000 T-Shape biometric sensor modules from a top-three global card manufacturer, and a design win from a top-tier global PC manufacturer.

Nuance beats guidance and shuffles the deck

Nuance exceeded its guidance range in both revenue and EPS for its first quarter of fiscal 2021, which ended December 31, 2020, with particularly strong demand for its security and biometric technologies driving record revenues in its enterprise division.

Healthcare cloud revenue was also up by 28 percent from the same quarter in fiscal 2020. Overall revenue from continuing operations was down, however, to $345.8 million from $361.5 million in the same period a year ago.

Nuance has acquired healthcare IT provider Saykara and sold its medical transcription and electronic healthcare records businesses, with the latter deal expected to close in the next quarter.

The company has also been named one of Montreal’s Top Employers for 2021 as part of the Canada’s Top 100 Employers project. It is the eleventh consecutive year that the company has received the honor.

Yinda Infocomm deal valued InterBio at $52M

Details continue to emerge about Singapore-based Yinda Infocomm’s acquisition of InterBio and investment in Tech5, which valued InterBio at SG$69 million (US$52 million), according to a company LinkedIn post.

InterBio maintains Indonesia’s national digital identity database, which includes 200 million people, and is intended to help InterBio address biometrics demand in its domestic Indonesian market.

The Tech5 investment comes with a preferential licensing agreement for access to its biometric technologies by Yinda Infocomm.

Ipsidy reminds shareholders to vote on corporate structure ahead of uplist

Ipsidy will conduct its annual shareholders meeting on March 22, 2021, a week later than originally scheduled, to discuss corporate structural matters ahead of a planned uplisting of its stock to a national exchange in the months ahead.

Some of the matters up for consideration require the support of a majority of outstanding shares, so the company emphasizes the importance of all stockholders exercising their voting rights.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  financial results  |  Fingerprint Cards  |  Idex Biometrics  |  investment  |  Ipsidy  |  Precise Biometrics  |  stocks  |  Yinda Infocomm