IDEX Focuses on Biometric Smart Cards in Year-end Update

As scheduled, biometric fingerprint solutions company IDEX has announced its fiscal results for Q4 and year end 2017. The update took strong efforts to emphasize the company’s posturing in the burgeoning biometric smart cards market, which IDEX has officially pivoted to as its primary focus moving forward.

IDEX reports revenues of NOK 2.5 million for Q4 2017 and NOK 17.5 million for the full year. Those figures both reflect a decrease from the corresponding periods in 2016, when the company reported revenues of NOK 12.5 million and NOK 38.6 million for the fourth quarter and full year respectively. The decrease in revenues is in step with the rest of the fingerprint sensor market as factors in the mobile sector have given cause for sensor manufacturers to look to other vertical markets like PC, IoT, and smart card biometrics.

The last of those verticals is IDEX’s primary aim. In its fiscal update the company highlighted the major moves it made in 2017 to prepare itself for the much anticipated biometric smart card boom. “The biometric card market is at an inflection point and IDEX is partnered with the market leaders in the ecosystem,” the company said.

During Q4 2017, IDEX’s smart card-centric partnerships positioned it to attack the market in 2018. Further to that goal, the company also announced two technological innovations that will benefit it in the biometric card arena – a proprietary remote enrollment solution and a new flexible large area sensor. The company expanded its partnership with IDEMIA for contactless cards, from which IDEX expects proof-of-concept pilots to begin within the first half of this year. It also highlighted its Mastercard partnership and emphasized strong interest in its solutions from Asia.

Moving forward, IDEX says its “top priority is to strengthen its leadership position in the biometric cards market.” In this respect, moves have already taken place, with yesterday’s announcement of a new CEO: the company’s Chief Products Officer Stan Swearingen.

While the focus of IDEX is clearly framed around 2018’s year of the biometric card, the company adds that its off-chip technology is suited for mobile display integrations, and that it will “continue to leverage its sensor solutions into the IoT market.”

The full IDEX Q4 2017 report can be found on the company’s website.

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February 22, 2018 – by Peter B. Counter