Dutch buyout fund enters biometrics market with InnoValor investment

Main Capital Partners has purchased a majority stake in InnoValor, the Netherlands-based digital ID document-scanning and biometrics provider that offers ReadID as its flagship product.

The investment was made through Main Capital Partners’ Main Capital VII fund, which is intended for growth capital or replacement capital with established software companies with an enterprise value from €25 million up to €250 million (approximately US$28.4 million to $284 million). The InnoValor stake is the second platform investment from the Capital VII fund, according to Main.

ReadID welcomed the announcement, with Wil Janssen, CMO and co-founder of ReadID, stating in a press release, “Strong ambitions need a strong partner. With Main’s experience and network, we can expand internationally faster, by opening more regional offices, and expand our product suite by adding more relevant orchestration partners. Our aim is to host a full suite of safe, high-tech identity verification methods.”

Main, a Dutch venture capital firm, says the ReadID investment is an entry into the identity verification business, which the company expects to grow by 30 to 40 percent per year until 2027, citing a report from Market Research Future. Main already has identity and access management (IAM) companies in its portfolio such as Pointsharp, Sivis, and Oribi.

The investment is expected to fuel further development of technologies for scanning near-field communication (NFC)-enabled ID documents like biometric passports, support the opening of offices in new geographies, and the strengthening of InnoValor’s partner ecosystem. Funds may also go towards acquisitions as part of a buy-and-build strategy.

Charly Zwemstra, managing partner of Main, comments, “ReadID has achieved great milestones in development of first class product technology and winning high profile clients. We aim to help them expand into new geographies and strengthen their position in this fast-growing product market by sharing our experience and network.”

ReadID offers an identity verification solution that verifies identities through scanning data from NFC chips with a smartphone. The scan can be combined with facial recognition to add biometrics as an additional layer of security.

The UK Home Office chose ReadID as its post-Brexit EU immigration app for ID document reading and verification in April 2019, which ReadID claims is the “most successful digital on-boarding immigration program using remote identity verification.”

Last November, the UK Home Office selected InnoValor as sub-supplier of biometric technology for a forensic border check trial. The company also partnered with GBG to bring its NFC scanning capabilities to a biometric onboarding solution in February 2021.

Article Topics

acquisitions  |  biometrics  |  digital identity  |  document verification  |  identity verification  |  Innovalor  |  investment  |  NFC  |  research and development