BIO-key biometrics and IAM revenues double year-over-year

Partnerships and PortalGuard drove BIO-key’s revenues to $992,000 in the second quarter of 2021, up 223 percent from a year earlier, according to an earnings announcement.

The company has added more than 40 new partners for its biometrics and identity and access management (IAM) technology since the beginning of 2021 through its Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) program.

Gross profit reached $1.9 million for the first six months of fiscal 2021, up from $557 thousand in the first half of last year. Operating expenses were up 22 percent last quarter on a year-over-year basis, and the company’s net loss was $1.2 million, or negative $0.15 per share, compared to a net loss of $1.6 million, or $0.60 per share in Q2 2020.

Highlights for BIO-key during the quarter include new distribution partnerships giving the company access to the Maryland and Virginia higher education and Kenyan markets. The company also launched its palm biometrics mobile app, and the company plans to further extend its MobileAuth to more biometric modalities.

“We are seeing growing demand for our PortalGuard cloud-hosted IDaaS solution launched in Q4’20, with particular strength in higher education and key enterprise verticals,” states BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale. “PortalGuard IDaaS is an ideal solution to address the significant IT security challenges posed by working and studying from home or outside an enterprise firewall. BIO-key fills this need with our attractively priced, asset-light cloud solutions that support most multifactor authentication options along with our industry leading biometric capabilities. Approximately 10 percent of our 200 active PortalGuard customers have migrated to our cloud solution, and we expect continued customer migrations over the balance of 2021 and next year. Importantly, this trend will build our base of recurring software subscription revenue and related revenue visibility.”

DePasquale also says that the company’s projects in Africa are expected to pick up pace in the second half of 2021 as business conditions normalize in the wake of the pandemic.

BIO-key’s full-year revenue guidance of $8 million to $12 million remains unchanged, and DePasquale says the company could potentially achieve profitability in that range.

Ping stockholders offering 6 million shares

Investment funds associated with Vista Equity Partners have begun an underwritten public offering of 6 million shares of common stock in Ping Identity.

The selling stockholders have also granted the underwriters, Morgan Stanley, a 30-day purchase option for an additional 900,000 shares in Ping. The company will not receive any proceeds from the sale.

Plurilock wins overseas contract

Plurilock has won a contract to provide its DEFEND cybersecurity software to a leading financial institution outside of the company’s home country of Canada for CA$672,000 (roughly US$533,000)

DEFEND uses behavioral biometrics to provide continuous authentication, and is expected to help the organization secure its remote workforce with access to sensitive data. It had an average attack detection time of under a minute in an evaluation, Plurilock says.

The multi-year purchase order is the first with an overseas cybersecurity customer by Plurilock’s Technology Division, according to the announcement.

“We are pleased to announce the latest purchase order for our continuous authentication DEFEND product after a stringent evaluation process,” states Ian L. Paterson, CEO of Plurilock. “Plurilock is defining a new paradigm of authentication, providing persistent and continuous authentication for workforces to help realize zero trust architecture. We are continuing to accelerate the roll out of our high margin products through our owned and partnered distribution channels, and this sale represents an important milestone in that effort.”

SenseTime inches towards IPO, which could reach $3B

SenseTime is moving forward with its proposed $2 billion IPO on the Hong Kong stock exchange, engaging HSBC Holdings and China International Capital Corp, unnamed sources told Bloomberg.

The report states that SenseTime could raise up to $3 billion, depending on its valuation, and that the final paperwork could be filed within the next several weeks.

Article Topics

BIO-key  |  biometrics  |  financial results  |  IPO  |  Ping Identity  |  Plurilock  |  SenseTime  |  stocks