BioConnect Opens New Biometric Innovation Hub

The Toronto-based biometric security specialist BioConnect has officially opened its BioConnect Labs innovation hub. BioConnect Labs will be focused primarily on R&D, and will work to develop new biometric security solutions for digital and physical spaces.

The lab itself is a collaborative initiative with public and private support, including a $3.9 million investment from FedDev Ontario. Universities and BioConnect customers and partners will come together with the government under the BioConnect Labs umbrella.

BioConnect Labs will operate under the direction of Head of Labs Todd Finch and Technology Head Courtney Gibson.

“BioConnect’s vision is to build better security – for people, for the places they work, and for the work that they do in the digital world,” said Gibson, who also serves as BioConnect’s CTO and CISO. “All of this is driven by an amazing team of innovators drawn from across the physical and the digital security landscape: experts in biometrics, digital security, physical security, hardware and data science.”

BioConnect Labs will focus its R&D efforts in four key areas with high growth potential at the enterprise level to develop custom solutions for its partners. To that end, the organization will work to create open standards for banks, develop operating systems for physical access control, promote frictionless movement, and automate learning and data technology.

FedDev Ontario’s $3.9 million investment was paired with an additional $9.1 million in private funding, all of which was funneled towards a BioConnect expansion that would lead to the creation of 40 new jobs in Toronto. BioConnect Labs would seem to represent the culmination of those efforts, and arrives after two years of dedicated planning. 

BioConnect joined the ForgeRock marketplace earlier this year. The company has since launched its own BioConnect Partner Program, which provides potential customers with a curated selection of identity and access management solutions.

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November 26, 2019 – by Eric Weiss