Zwipe dials back biometric pay product, access cards now the focus

Zwipe is choosing a new path for itself, and it has less to do with Pay, the company’s biometric payment card.

The ailing maker of fingerprint-scanning cards lost its chief financial officer 11 days ago and is entering a full-on restructuring.

In a prepared statement, Zwipe said it is “accelerating the commercialization” of Access, its biometric access-control card.

Sixty proofs of concept are “in progress.” One is with Berkshire Hathaway Energy Group, the company said.

The change will cut the operating costs associated with Pay production and marketing. The combined savings of this cutback and June 2023 corporate layoffs, according to executives, will be NOK 40 million compared to fiscal 2023.

Executives have said that total cash flow over the next two years will be “more than NOK 40 million [US$3.8 million] better” than if they had not changed direction. The company is targeting the second half of 2025 to break even.

Executives feel that the ground they turned in the nascent biometric access control market last year, including signing dozens of U.S. and European partnerships has prepared them to succeed.

Zwipe complies with the security-focused EU NIS2 directive, which becomes mandatory in October. The company says this deadline “has emerged as a critical catalyst for end customers,” which puts Access in a favorable light.

A need for a change became clearer as 2023 continued. Adoption of Pay and the pace of commercial launches were disappointing.

Five employees are departing from the Pay team, while Zwipe will add to the sales team for Access.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric cards  |  stocks  |  Zwipe  |  Zwipe Access  |  Zwipe Pay