Contactless biometric payments startups draw funding, integration partners

New players are entering the biometric payment market, forecasted by Goode Intelligence to make more than $11 billion in revenue by the end of the decade.

Latvian fintech startup Handwave is preparing to secure regulatory certifications for its palm-scanning devices and launch pilots in third-party retail stores. The scanner measures hand shape and vein biometrics, measuring blood flow for liveness detection.

Founded by two former employees of payment company Worldline, the company has developed its own hardware and software product and is hoping to attract merchants in Europe. Merchants using the palm scanner would pay Handwave transaction fees that are comparable to or below standard payment processing rates. The firm is also setting its eyes on the U.S. market.

The Riga-headquartered company has already partnered with a handful of financial institutions, including Visa, according to its co-founders, CEO Janis Stirna and Sandis Osmanis-Usmanis.

Handwave funded its R&D process through bootstrapping, a $780,000 angel investment round, and $267,000 in non-equity funding from an EU-funded grant from the Latvian Central Finance and Contracts Agency (CFLA). It has also received support from Latvia’s LIAA Business Incubator and EU-backed accelerator Ready2Scale.

It has also obtained $4.2 million in seed funding with Vilnius-based venture capital firm Practica Capital as the lead investor, TechCrunch reports.

Secern AI joins contactless payments race in Korea

The contactless payment market is also rising in South Korea, where companies such as Shinhan Card, Toss and Naver are attracting more users. Another entrant into the field is Seoul-based AI vision company Secern AI.

The company has signed a partnership agreement with electronic payment gateway company Nice Payments and plans to work on a combined facial recognition payment product.

The SeeU Pay 2.0 service will rely on Secern AI’s face biometrics technology and Nice Payments’ payment infrastructure and settlement system. The system links facial data with credit card information, ensuring fraud protection through features such as liveness detection.

Secern AI plans to attract customers not only from retailers but also from public institutions, resorts, restaurants, and more. Demand is expected to be particularly strong in industries that require identity verification before payment, such as hospitals, pharmacies, and airport duty-free shops, the two companies say in a release.

Alan Goode of Goode Intelligence recently discussed opportunities in contactless payments in a Biometric Update podcast.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  contactless biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  funding  |  Handwave  |  palm biometrics  |  Secern AI