Clearview $30M Series B funding extends facial recognition investment hot streak

Clearview AI has added $21.4 million to the $8.6 million it announced in an SEC filing last year, the New York Times reports, bringing its Series B funding round to a total of $30 million and continuing a hot streak for investment in biometrics, and facial recognition in particular.

The investment gives the company a valuation of $130 million, and brings it to a total of $38 million raised.

The funding round included “institutional investors and private family offices,” Clearview CEO Hoan Ton-That told the Times, though they declined to be identified.

The Times also points out that the company is facing a joint investigation in Britain and Australia and multiple class-action lawsuits, and was declared illegal in Canada earlier this year.

Ton-That also told the Times that his company has had good news on the legal front, apparently referring to the rejection of a motion that it be blocked from operating in Illinois pending the outcome of one of the cases, and noted that companies like Airbnb, Uber and PayPal have had legal entanglements.

“People forget about that once the company is a lot larger,” he says. ‘Investors can see that it’s just part of doing business.”

Clearview added three C-level executives in May as it seeks to expand the customer base of its law enforcement facial recognition tool.

AnyVision topped the series of recently-announced fund-raises by biometrics providers, picking up $235 million earlier this month.

Article Topics

biometric identification  |  biometrics  |  Clearview AI  |  facial recognition  |  funding  |  investment  |  law enforcement