NEC looks to expand face payments program with Stripe terminal integration

Paper’s done, plastic’s over; it’s face time. In Japan, Stripe and NEC Corporation are partnering to enable in-store face payments through the Stripe Reader S700 payment terminal.

“Through this collaboration, Stripe is proud to support NEC’s world-renowned face recognition technology, enabling its use for payments through our unified commerce solution,” says Daniel Heffernan, product lead for Stripe in Japan.

NEC’s senior vice president, Kazuhisa Shimizu, says that “by combining NEC’s world-class face recognition technology with Stripe’s globally trusted payment platform, we aim to provide a new payment experience and create a world where everyone can safely, easily, and conveniently utilize digital technology.”

NEC has been pursuing biometric payments for a few years now: according to a report from Business Times, a convenience store at a private boarding school for boys in Japan has been trialing NEC face payments since 2022, allowing students aged 12-18 to pay for snacks and supplies with facial scans. The trial is reportedly part of a high-level push for NEC further into biometric payments, which also saw the firm pilot its biometric payments system at Expo 2025 in Osaka from April to October.

NEC payments, agentic AI tech on display at Singapore FinTech Festival

Integration with Stripe’s payment terminals would open up a host of new opportunities for NEC. Stripe Reader S700 is WiFi-enabled and designed for both countertop and handheld use, servicing customers in 25 countries.

The two firms plan to showcase the complete facial recognition payment experience with the Stripe Reader S700 at the 2025 Singapore FinTech Festival, which runs from November 12 to 14.

Agentic AI is also in NEC’s spotlight for Singapore. The firm believes AI agents have promising applications for connecting executives with procurement, supplier, logistics and finance agents, improving visibility across the supply chain and enabling real-time negotiations. Like many others, they also recognize the need for suitable identity orchestration and management systems to handle the influx of bots.

Article Topics

biometric payments  |  biometrics  |  face biometrics  |  NEC  |  NeoFace  |  retail biometrics  |  Stripe