Next Biometrics and Prodigy report Q2, VSBLTY expands to OTCQB Venture Market

Order books are bulging for many biometric equipment makers, but shortages and delays throughout the global supply chain brought on by COVID mean some companies are unable to manufacture their products quickly enough. Next Biometrics is one such company according to its Q2 2021 results, while the sector as a whole remains active with investments, listings and share options.

Next Biometrics financials: orders 50% above delivery capacity, new design wins

The Q2 report for Next Biometrics reveals strong interest in the company’s offerings with NOK 15.7 million (US$1.75 m) in orders including a $100,000 US contract for fingerprint sensors, revenues of NOK 10.5 m ($1.17m) compared to NOK 13.6 m for Q2 2020. They are achieving a gross margin of 21 percent, up from 13 percent in the same quarter in 2020.

Had they been able to deliver, the backlog would have taken the company to almost NOK 16 million. FAP20 sensor orders were particularly hard hit by the global microchip shortage.

“Our performance in Q2 was hampered by the supply chain challenges affecting so many industries,” remarked CEO Peter Heuman, “We have worked hard to overcome these difficulties, but many obstacles remain beyond our control. Our new customers face challenges securing components for their products, and hence they also delay their purchase orders with Next.”

The company expects the semi-conductor supply challenges to gradually ease and Notebook sensor customer orders are at an all-time high.

The balance of earnings before adjustments are improving, now standing at a loss of NOK 3.6 million ($402,000) at the end of Q2 and 14.6 million for the first six months of 2021. For the full year 2020 the negative figure was almost NOK 79 million ($8.8m).

The Norway-based firm announces 19 design awards over the past 18 months, including one for a POS device for the Indian fintech market and two yet to be revealed.

In Q3, the firm has already signed a multi-year agreement with Paravision on combined face and fingerprint biometric authentication solutions.

Prodigy Ventures sets sights on Canadian open banking

Q2 results for Canada’s fintech innovation firm Prodigy Ventures saw a 21 percent fall in revenue compared to the same quarter in 2020 to CAD$3.25m (US$2.56m)) and gross profits at $876,498 ($691,263) compared to $1.15m ($906,947) last year, down 24 percent. The company reported a loss of $83,485 ($65,840) for Q2 2021, up from $49,289 ($38,872) from Q2 2020.

For year-to-date results, the figures are broadly similar in terms of change in 2020, while operating costs decreased 19 percent to $1.84 million ($1.45m).

“Prodigy has reached a pivotal point in its strategic development with the closing of the FICANEX Technology acquisition,” said Tom Beckerman, Prodigy’s Chairman and CEO. “The just-released final report of the Canadian Advisory Committee on Open Banking has recommended the adoption of open banking over the next 18 plus months, and our Tunl and IDVerifact platforms are ideally positioned to deliver innovation for our customers in this high growth sector.”

The all-in-one biometric ID verification suite IDVerifact was launched in June 2021. Tunl is the offering for open banking and customer chat. The firm recently added Bill Maurin to its board of directors.

VSBLTY trades on OTCQB market

Philadelphia-based security and retail analysis firm VSBLTY is hoping for increased liquidity after being approved to trade on the OTCQB Venture Market in the U.S. Its common shares are now trading under the symbol ‘VSBGF’. The firm’s common shares will continue to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange under ‘VSBY’ and Frankfurt Stock Exchange as ‘5VS’.

VSBLTY has announced that it has issued 3,175,000 incentive stock options to employees with an exercise price of $0.51 and which will expire five years from the date of grant.

The OTCQB is designed for early stage entrepreneurial companies and is recognized by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

VSBLTY recently announced a collaboration with RapidSOS to provide first responders and 911 telecommunicators in the US with the ability to access biometrics and other incident data.

Trust Stamp splits stock for Nasdaq Capital Market application

AI-powered identity solutions company Trust Stamp is completing a share-split today of each Class A Common Stock (‘Pre-split shares’) into five shares of Class A Common Stock (‘Post-split shares’) to support its application to uplist on the Nasdaq Capital Market.

A majority of shareholders approved the 5-for-1 split which was filed on 18 August 2021. The change is to adhere to the Nasdaq’s trading volume requirements.

Trust Stamp recently raised $4 million via a private offering to increase its market penetration.

AuthID.ai cuts deal size in half ahead of Nasdaq uplisting

Biometric identity verification firm AuthID.ai has lowered the proposed deal size for its upcoming IPO, reducing the anticipated proceeds by 50 percent.

The Long Beach-based company is now seeking to raise $10 million by offering 1.5 million shares at $6.81, rather than 2.1 million at $9.63.

In July 2021, the firm announced the conversion of $6.4 million of debt into equity by its noteholders.

Liquid Avatar announces $2.1m private placement

Canada-based blockchain digital identity firm Liquid Avatar Technologies has entered into a CAD$2.7 million ($2.1m) private placement for 24,000,000 common shares and warrants to purchase 24,000,000 common shares.

Net proceeds will be used for working capital. The firm develops Self-sovereign Identity solutions and ways for users to represent themselves virtually.

Idex Biometrics to issue 365,000 employee shares

Norway-based Idex Biometrics is to issue 365,280 ordinary shares at an average price of NOK 0.93 ($0.10) to employees who have exercised incentive subscription rights in 2019 and 2020.

This follows a heavily-oversubscribed private placement on the Oslo Bors which raised $27.5 million. The firm recently began trading on the Nasdaq.

Idex Biometrics CEO Vince Graziani noted recently that the firm will increasingly focus on biometric applications related to Central Bank Digital Currencies.

Article Topics

authID  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  financial results  |  Idex Biometrics  |  Liquid Avatar  |  Next Biometrics  |  Prodigy  |  stocks  |  Trust Stamp  |  VSBLTY