Idex Biometrics, Next Biometrics ink access control deals

A pair of new partnership deals underlines the interest in identity and access products as analysts project impressive growth figures for digital identity and IAM over the next ten years.

Idex Biometrics has signed its first technology partnership with Vietnam’s Savyint Group to roll out its new biometric FIDO Access cards across Vietnam and Southeast Asia. The agreement marks a key step in Idex’s commercial expansion and underscores growing market appetite for its ID/Access product line.

Savyint will introduce Idex’s Total Access card, a FIDO-certified smart card that fuses traditional access credentials with on-card fingerprint authentication, into sectors ranging from finance and government to healthcare and education.

The deal comes as demand for secure, passwordless authentication surges in Southeast Asia. Industry forecasts project the global digital identity market to soar from $43 billion in 2025 to more than $150 billion by 2032, while the FIDO authentication segment alone is expected to exceed $5.7 billion by 2029, growing at a compound annual rate of 24.4 percent. Southeast Asia’s digital economy, already worth $295 billion in 2024, is on track to hit $1 trillion by 2030.

“Digital trust represents the confidence users place in people, technology, and processes to create a secure digital ecosystem,” said Steve Hoang, CTO and Chairman of Savyint Group. “Idex’s biometric FIDO Access cards enable us to significantly strengthen and expand our identity solutions portfolio, providing the robust authentication foundation that transparent and secure digital services require.”

Anders Storbråten, CEO of Idex Biometrics, said the partnership leverages Savyint’s deep regional expertise and customer base. “Their proven expertise in customer authentication and commitment to building comprehensive digital trust ecosystems makes them an ideal partner for introducing our biometric access technology to this dynamic market,” he said.

The collaboration also forms a crucial pillar of Idex’s distributor channel strategy, providing a tested go-to-market route for its cards in one of the world’s fastest-growing digital identity markets. Both companies say the alliance lays the groundwork for broader expansion across Southeast Asia as organisations increasingly adopt zero-trust security frameworks.

Next Biometrics signs new multi-year agreement

Next Biometrics has deepened its collaboration with a U.S. identity and access management provider, extending a partnership that initially embedded Next’s sensors into the partner’s solutions. Under a new multi-year agreement, the partner will anchor its latest offering on Next’s Oyster III fingerprint authentication platform, placing an initial NOK 2.5 million ($243,633) order with deliveries slated for the third quarter of 2025.

The timing reflects growing urgency among governments and corporations to counter phishing and other cyber threats by moving toward passwordless user identification within zero-trust multi-factor authentication frameworks. Industry analysts value the global IAM market at 22.9 billion today, with forecasts projecting it will swell to $65.5 billion by 2034.

“While IAM has been around for some time, we’ve reached a tipping point and momentum is growing,” said Ulf Ritsvall, CEO of Next Biometrics, pointing to a confluence of remote working trends, an evolving threat landscape, regulatory pressures and built-in support for IAM in Windows 11 in pushing the sector.

“Our engineers have worked closely with our partner to tailor this solution to their needs and bring faster and stronger passwordless authentication to their customers globally,” he added.

Built on the Windows Biometric Framework (WBF), Oyster III replaces slower sign-in methods with on-device fingerprint matching that works on both new and existing hardware. Next’s Active Thermal sensor combines heat mapping and 3D imaging to deliver advanced liveness detection and thwart spoofing attacks, while LED prompts guide users to ensure accurate finger placement and fast authentication, according to the company.

Article Topics

access control  |  biometric cards  |  biometrics  |  fingerprint biometrics  |  fingerprint sensors  |  Idex Biometrics  |  Next Biometrics  |  passwordless authentication