Grabba extends deal in UAE, eyes lucrative US and European market

Australian biometric identity authentication firm Grabba has signed a new, “significant contract” with United Arab Emirates telecommunications company Du Telecom, its CEO Jon Carter has announced.

The terms of the fresh four-year contract have not been disclosed but Grabba says that the renewal of the deal for its mobile identity products will help support the country’s anti-terror and anti-money laundering (AML) rules.

The company also works with UAE’s telecommunications firm Etisalat and has 15,000 devices for identity verification at points of sale (POS) throughout the country. The technology is used to validate customers’ identity which is done by presenting a national ID card and a physical fingerprint.

The Brisbane-based firm backed by technology investor Ross McKinnon has also completed fundraising for an undisclosed sum, according to Business News Australia.

“It was a growth-focused capital raise to recruit more sales and marketing team members given that we have grown our business without a marketing team to this point,” says Carter.

Grabba is one of the companies that have access to UAE’s country’s identity and citizenship authority’s database. Its next mission in the UAE is to tap into the local banking and financial sector, according to Carter.

The company has been working with other agencies and companies across the globe, including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Department of Homeland Security, the UK Home Office and the Canada Border Services Agency.

“We’ve also been targeting other US agencies such as ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement),” says Carter, adding that the firm has been working on a go-to-market plan there for the past 18 months.

Aside from the U.S., Europe is also considered a lucrative market for Grabba as the continent is preparing to introduce its biometric-based Entry-Exit System (EES).

Article Topics

AML  |  biometric authentication  |  biometrics  |  Grabba  |  identity verification  |  KYC  |  telecom  |  UAE