Closing out ’22 with a check on biometric ID unicorns
It is always interesting to look at even a caveat-cradled list of breakout businesses, and the (short) list of the world’s biometric ID unicorns is no different.
Who would not gladly accept more information that could help them realize immense wealth and industry strength? That is a rhetorical question. The following was pulled from a very simple chart of biometrics giants and their funders.
Here is the top line. The biometric ID software industry is, surprisingly, not dominated by the United States. And only one venture fund has been involved with more than one company. That means a broad field that entrepreneurs can pitch to.
The end result is that entrepreneurs in this industry around the global have a microscopically better shot at being a horned horse.
Now, the caveats. This is a general direction finder. Cut no checks (remember cutting a check?) based on this exercise.
This list is built off data collected and published by investment compendium CrunchBase, certainly a publisher that anyone trying to understand a market or industry should visit often. That means we cannot absolutely vouch for the data because we did not collect it. Having said that, CrunchBase is a very respected data player.
This also is not an exhaustive list of venture capital firms – just noteworthy funders. This works for our purposes here.
The 12 biometrics provider unicorns, listed by valuation next to homebase and year inducted are:
1Password ($6.8B), Canada, 2021
Socure ($4.5B), U.S., 2021
Megvii ($4B), China, 2017
Transmit Security ($2.7B), Israel, 2021
Yitu ($2.1B), China, 2018
Trulioo ($1.8B), Canada, 2021
Persona ($1.5B), U.S, 2021
ID.me ($1.5B), U.S., 2021
Veriff ($1.5B), Estonia, 2022
Incode ($1.3B), U.S., 2021
Hailo ($1B), Israel, 2021
Feedzai ($1B), U.S., 2021
Accel Partners, located in Silicon Valley is the venture firm invested in more than one of the pretty dozen – 1Password and Veriff. It is worth noting that neither are U.S. firms. Accel is the 24th largest fund ranked by FundComb, publisher of a search engine for corporate finance.
Tiger Global Management ($10 billion) and Institutional Venture Partners ($7 billion) are in Veriff with Accel.
That is it for linkages, but it is interesting to see which funds have a stake in which company.
The biggest VC listed by FundComb is General Atlantic, with $31 billion, and it is backing Transmit Security. Joining General Atlantic is Insight Partners, which boasts $18 billion – No. 3 in the ranking.
Sequoia Capital China, nested in Sequoia Capital ($4 billion) is invested in Yitu. The global partnership is all but royalty in Silicon Valley, having taken early stakes in Apple, Google, YouTube and WhatsApp.
Time, interest and adoption rates will tell if biometrics unicorns will be minted in 2023 at a rate closer to the past year, or the frenzy of 2021.
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