UK Scaleup Programme to support Freevolt biometric smart card development

The Innovate UK Scaleup Programme has accepted Freevolt (formerly Drayson Technologies) after a three-stage screening process. The initiative is designed to help companies substantially scale up their development efforts via access to finance, investment possibilities, and internationalization planning.

The Programme will now support Freevolt in the development of its biometric smart card products for access control, healthcare, and payments sectors, as well as for cryptocurrency wallets.

“Our work with the Freevolt Technologies team is a great example of just how much value this program can add to the endeavors of the business leaders we support,” explained Maxine Adam, head of Business Growth at Innovate UK.

“The inputs are varied and blend strategic thinking with invaluable hands-on tactical guidance, to create outcomes that deliver real commercial advantage,” she added.

Freevolt’s main product is S-Key, a batteryless biometric smart card, which the firm says delivers three times more power than technologies currently on the market.

“Following the fantastic work completed by the Freevolt Team as part of our Innovate UK grant, we are now in a position to launch and commercialize our S-Key product,” said Lord Paul Drayson, chairman of Freevolt Technologies.

From a technological standpoint, the solution reuses and harvests radiofrequency energy from most radio transmission networks, including NFC, cellular, and WiFi.

Using these technologies, Freevolt intends to manufacture advanced biometric smart cards with built-in fraud protection that do not require any changes in the existing card reader infrastructure or firms’ user experience.

Freevolt’s solutions are also being deployed in a partnership formed earlier this year with Fingerprint Cards and Infineon.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric cards  |  biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Freevolt  |  healthcare  |  research and development  |  smart card  |  smartcards  |  startup