NEXT Biometrics Gains Traction in Aadhaar Market With Latest Sensor Order

NEXT Biometrics‘ efforts to target the Indian market continue to pay off, with the company announcing that MobiOcean, a New Delhi-based payments technology company, has placed another order for NEXT’s fingerprint sensors. The order is valued at NOK 1 million.

MobiOcean had previously ordered NEXT sensors in 2019, aiming to integrate them into a Point-of-Sale solution that was compatible with Aadhaar, India’s biometric national ID program. The POS solution in that case was designed to use a consumer’s Aadhaar number and the associated fingerprint data to authorize transactions.

In announcing the latest MobiOcean order, NEXT Biometrics indicated that it too would see NEXT sensors integrated into POS terminals, in this case “for financial inclusion projects by one of the largest state cooperative banks in India”. The company also characterized the order as “an additional design win… similar to the order announced with Pagaria on 10 February 2021.” That order also pertained to POS terminal integrations, with NEXT indicating at the time that the devices were earmarked for a fast-growing Indian payment bank.

Both of these recent orders speak to NEXT’s accelerating business in India, where the rise of Aadhaar has opened new market opportunities for biometrics vendors. The Pagaria order in particular is telling, as it saw the client significantly increase the number of sensors to be purchased over an initial order laid out in a Letter of Intent announced in January.

As for the new MobiOcean order, NEXT Biometrics expects to ship its sensors in the second quarter of 2021. The company also “expects additional follow-on orders from the same business partner during 2021,” according to its announcement.

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April 29, 2021 – by Alex Perala