Next continues to make Aadhaar biometrics inroads with multi-million dollar deal

Next Biometrics has signed an agreement with India-based customer ACPL to supply it with between 55 million and 107 million Norwegian kroner (roughly $5.3 million to $10.3 million) worth of advanced fingerprint sensors for use in Aadhaar identity verification and payment use cases.

ACPL (Access Computech Pvt Ltd) has an option to order Next’s new advanced biometric sensor with liveness detection, or the standard version of its flagship FAP20 sensor, which has a lower unit price.

The order indicates ACPL’s growing market share, according to the announcement from Next.

Next reached an agreement to supply ACPL with biometric sensors in late-2024, and the Indian hardware provider subsequently became one of three OEMs (at the time) to have passed anti-spoofing tests required for Aadhaar L1 certification with its AST300 device. The two companies have been working together since 2022.

“Partnering with NEXT Biometrics has enabled us to deliver faster, more secure, and Aadhaar-compliant fingerprint authentication solutions,” states Ajay Sinha, managing director at ACPL. “NEXT’s sensor technology has helped us meet stringent L1 certification requirements while enhancing the overall citizen experience through faster transactions and superior reliability. The close technical collaboration with their engineering team was a major factor in the successful integration and rollout of our latest products.”

CEO Ulf Ritsvall says the purchase order shows the value ACPL sees in Next’s “Active Thermal” biometric sensors from their security and liveness.

Next reported a revenue increase above 100 percent last year, and since then has announced an MoU with another Indian customer worth NOK 30 million (approximately US$2.65 million) in the next two years and an NOK1.7 million (approximately US$160,000) order from a Chinese OEM building POS systems for Nigerian banks.

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