Clear charts path from consumerization of biometrics to cross-sector platform

Clear’s transition to a digital identity platform for many different services includes plans to launch more products this year than it has over the past decade, “probably.” CEO Caryn Seidman Becker said during a recent episode of the Office Hours: Business Edition podcast that the current period of “prolific product innovation,” is a result of “the seeds that we planted over the past few years.”

Seidman Becker recounts her experience as a junior analyst in risk arbitrage with a Wall Street firm in the 90s, and then hedge funds. During that time, she saw the potential in tech turnarounds, and following the market crash of 2008 became interested in the opportunities that could emerge from the downturn.

Clear ceased operating in June, 2009 after filing for bankruptcy, but Siedman Becker felt its use of biometrics offered an opportunity for subscriptions to a platform, rather than a discrete service, and bought and relaunched it in 2012.

Since then, the company has worked to pioneer “the consumerization of biometrics.”

Clear’s new products include its biometric eGates and the approval of its credentials as REAL ID. EnVe biometric “pods” with liveness detection rolled out last November. But they also extend beyond travel, with forays into healthcare, which Siedman Becker calls “pretty analog and fragmented,” business contracts and real estate.

Siedman Becker discussed Clear’s deal with Epic to bring face biometrics to healthcare, and how the loss of her husband to cancer two years ago has informed her perspective on the healthcare industry.

The lessons of adaptability that Siedman Becker learned on Wall Street applied to its long-ago transition away from cards as the consumer’s credential, but also apply to successful incumbents.

“You can’t have a network when you’re based on smart cards,” Siedman Becker points out. “Then we went to the cloud; then we were using fingerprints and eyes; now we’re using face; now we’re going to mobile; now we’re going international; now we’re doing enterprise identity and security.”

The conversation touched on how and who Clear hires, its plans in enterprise identity management and the potential for the company to help restore identity integrity to the world of dating apps.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  CLEAR  |  digital ID infrastructure  |  digital identity  |  identity management  |  identity verification