Latvian palm biometric payment firm Handwave raises $4M in seed funding, partners with Visa

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.

Goode Intelligence has forecasted that more than 3.5 billion people will be making biometric-enabled payments by the end of the decade.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  funding  |  Handwave  |  Latvia  |  palm biometrics  |  startup