FARx announces new chairman, new seed funding in push for global growth

UK multimodal biometrics and deepfake detection provider FARx has appointed former BT executive Chris Bruce as its new chairman, following on a £625,000 ($448,000) seed funding round through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS) and the Enterprise Investment Scheme, aimed at expanding global market reach.

According to a company statement, Bruce comes on board as the firm prepares for the next stage of growth for its biometric authentication technology in the UK beyond, bringing more than 20 years of international experience leading and scaling technology businesses at BT Group. Foundationally, Bruce established his leadership in the connectivity space as CEO of BT Openzone Wi-Fi, overseeing the delivery of connectivity across the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Per the statement, Bruce has worked extensively in Europe, US and Asia launching global services to enterprise customers, including the commercial launch of Telfort Mobile in the Netherlands, and spent a decade serving on the board of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). He now serves as a non-executive board director at Cambridge Wireless.

Clive Summerfield, CEO of FARx, says his “combination of executive leadership experience, board expertise and deep connections within the technology sector will be invaluable as we continue to scale the business.”

“He has an exceptional track record of building and growing technology organisations, while his leadership within the Cambridge technology community demonstrates his ability to bring people, innovation and opportunity together.”

At FARx, Bruce will steer the ship through digital waters under siege from identity fraud, deepfakes and AI-enabled cyber threats. He says the company’s technology addresses one of the most critical challenges facing organisations today: “how to securely verify identity in an era increasingly shaped by AI, deepfakes and sophisticated digital fraud.”

“FARx has developed a genuinely innovative solution with significant global potential,” Bruce says. “I look forward to working with the team to accelerate growth, build strategic partnerships and help drive the company’s ambitious vision.”

FARx differentiates its product offerings with multi-factor authentication that “fuses speaker, speech and facial recognition into a single solution.” It leverages continuous learning to “identify not only what is being said, but who is saying it.” A patented proprietary machine learning algorithm detects subtle biometric shifts such as emotion, tone, or behavioural anomalies that could signal a threat, helping organizations detect and prevent attempts to spoof identities using synthetic voices, deepfake technology and recorded audio or video.

The tech is patented in the UK and the U.S., and the firm says it is planning expansion in North America, Latin America and APAC.

Article Topics

appointments  |  biometric authentication  |  deepfake detection  |  FARx  |  funding  |  multimodal biometrics