A $3 million seed round is going to a biometric ID and payments firm close on the heels of a $2.85 million pre-seed placement.
The company is Wink and the latest round was led by Cerracap Venture. Also participating were Flying Point Industries and some family offices.
Wink claims it will change passwordless biometric authentication and hands-free payments. Its engineers reportedly can convert any digital camera regardless of hardware platform into a secure face authenticator.
It would seem that anyone operating a connected camera would be able to authenticate and accept payments. That is a big net, including everything from phones and POS terminals to IoT systems and connected cars.
The company’s play is making it harder for businesses to miss an authentication or lose a purchase for want of some hardware.
Deepak Jain, Wink’s founder and chief executive, said in a statement, “We are committed to weeding out passwords and loophole-ridden legacy authentication methods by offering a modern decentralized biometrics-based platform.”
Juniper predicted in 2021 that 1.4 billion people will be making payments with software-based facial authentication by 2025.
Article: Startup wants every camera to be a biometric authenticator