NEXT Biometrics ‘Gaining Traction in Most Important Market’ in Q1 Update

NEXT Biometrics has issued its latest quarterly update, and is celebrating progress as it pursues the biometric smart cards market.

The Q1 results show a modest year-over-year change in NEXT Biometrics’ revenues, which came in at NOK 23.3 million, compared to NOK 24.1 million in Q1 of 2017. Its EBITDA also showed a small – albeit positive – change, coming in at NOK -37.8 million compared to NOK -40.7 million a year ago.

But it’s NEXT Biometrics’ gross margin that shows the real progress the company has made. In its Q3 update last November, NEXT predicted that it would see a positive gross margin in Q1; that figure has now come in at 19 percent, a considerable achievement considering that gross margin was -10 percent in Q1 of 2017. Commenting on the results, NEXT CEO Ritu Favre said the gross margin “is a confirmation of our progress” with respect to NEXT’s efforts to promote its large, low-cost flexible fingerprint sensors in the access control, government ID, and notebook markets.

Favre also highlighted the company’s progress in an area where the company is expected to reap fruit, noting that NEXT’s technical work on contactless smart cards and its sampling of contact-based smart cards “show that NEXT’s fingerprint sensor technology is gaining traction in our most important market.”

The company’s update also emphasized its recent organizational changes meant to accommodate anticipated growth and accelerate its manufacturing process, an important maneuver as NEXT continues to pursue the biometric cards market.

–

May 15, 2018 – by Alex Perala