IDEX Q1 Update Emphasizes Pursuit of Biometric Cards Market

“Looking ahead, the company asserts that its ‘top priority is to continue to secure its leadership position in the market for biometric cards,’ adding that it’s ‘currently in active commercial discussions and final preparations for commercial roll-out’ of its contact-based solution…”

IDEX has issued its Q1 results for 2018, with fiscal numbers showing little substantial change, belying the company’s extensive efforts to pursue opportunities emerging with the biometric smart cards market.

The company saw revenues of about NOK 1.8 million for the quarter, compared to NOK 6.8 million in Q1 of 2017. And it saw a net loss of about NOK 56.8 million for the period, compared to a loss of NOK 60.5 million a year ago.

These are modest improvements, but they don’t reflect the company’s true business strategy, which is structured around gearing up for new market opportunities, a response that echoes those of its fingerprint sensor peers as the mobile biometrics market has seen dramatically shrinking costs and margins over the past year. Of particular interest is the developing area of biometric smart cards, with IDEX’s report highlighting numerous key developments in this area over the past quarter including a new self-enrollment solution developed with Mastercard, partnerships with vendors, and other preparations for mass commercialization of its biometric card technology.

Looking ahead, the company asserts that its “top priority is to continue to secure its leadership position in the market for biometric cards,” adding that it’s “currently in active commercial discussions and final preparations for commercial roll-out” of its contact-based solution, and that it “anticipates proof of concept pilots” for its contactless solution to start in Q2 of this year. Meanwhile, the company will also “selectively leverage its sensor solutions into the IoT market when existing solutions can be sold to customers,” and says that its off-chip technology is “ideal suited for integration into the smartphone display,” an area of growing interest to multiple smartphone makers and one that IDEX considers “an exciting opportunity going forward.”

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May 9, 2018 – by Alex Perala