BIO-key Reports Massive Revenue Jump in Q4/2020 Update

Revenues are way up and losses are way down in BIO-key‘s latest corporate update, reflecting growing demand for strong online authentication solutions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, and brisk business with respect to the PortalGuard solution acquired by the company last year.

Revenues for the fourth quarter of 2020 came in at $1.1 million, a 99 percent jump over BIO-key’s revenues of $0.5 million in Q4 of 2019. Its net loss for the quarter was $1.4 million, compared to a net loss of $9.5 million in the same quarter a year prior.

Looking to the full-year results, BIO-key is reporting revenues of $2.8 million for fiscal 2020, compared to revenues of $2.3 million in 2019. Its net loss, meanwhile, shrank from a loss of $14.6 million in 2019 to a net loss of $9.8 million in fiscal 2020.

Commenting on the results, BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale noted that while business activity was curtailed by the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, BIO-key turned things around with a mid-year recapitalization effort (in the form of a stock and warrants offering) and the acquisition of the PortalGuard Single Sign-On solution.

“Almost immediately, we began building momentum in our business, which is benefiting from IT security challenges driven by the shift to remote work and studies,” DePasquale explained, adding later, “We continue to see robust interest for our PortalGuard solution within the higher education and enterprise markets, particularly now that we have added a cloud-hosted, identity as a service solution (IDaaS) to our existing on-premises solution.”

DePasquale also expressed optimism about BIO-key’s efforts in Africa – a region of “substantial opportunity” for the company – and highlighted the company’s recent delivery of fingerprint sensors to support initiatives in Nigeria. And he suggested that BIO-key’s Channel Alliance Partner program will likely become “a key driver” in the company’s long-term growth.

Looking ahead to the new fiscal year, BIO-key’s leadership anticipate full-year revenues in the range of $8 million to $12 million, the midpoint of which would mean roughly 250 percent growth over the company’s 2020 revenues.

“Depending on the mix of hardware and software revenues, we believe BIO-key is positioned to achieve profitability within our revenue guidance range,” DePasquale said.

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March 25, 2021 – by Alex Perala