Year in Review: HYPR CEO George Avetisov Talks Highlights and Key Trends at Turn of Year

As part of the FindBiometrics Year in Review 2017 we approached industry executives and thought leaders to get their comments on the past 12 months in the biometrics industry, and what’s in store for 2018.

Last year was a big one for HYPR. The company kicked 2017 off with the announcement of its eCommerce security platform based on its decentralized approach to the storage of biometric credentials, and soon after that it received FIDO Alliance certification for the server component of its platform. HYPR continued to pick up momentum from there with the appointment of its first independent director and, in the autumn, the conclusion of a successful Series A funding round, and a big connection with Mastercard.

HYPR CEO George Avetisov touches on those latter developments at the start of our interview with him, and proceeds to elaborate on some of the main trends of 2017 and what he sees in the pipeline for this year.

Read our full interview with George Avetisov, CEO, HYPR:

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FindBiometrics: What are the biggest highlights for your organization from the past year?

George Avetisov, CEO HYPR: 2017 was an amazing year for HYPR. We closed our Series A funding round led by RRE Ventures, with participation from prior investors RTP Ventures, Boldstart Ventures, and Mesh Ventures. In addition, Mastercard participated as a follow-on investor. We made several key hires to support our 2018 goals, and were joined by industry luminaries such as our first independent board member Nick Donofrio — a 44 year veteran of IBM.

FB: What, in your opinion, was the defining trend for the biometrics industry as a whole in 2017?

HYPR: The defining trend for the biometrics industry was the continued deployment of decentralized biometric authentication solutions by forward-leaning organizations looking to secure their consumers and employees. I was particularly excited by the advances of hardware-backed security in the Android space, and by Apple’s ongoing support of decentralized authentication through iPhone X Face ID feature. This is all proof that people feel a growing comfort using biometrics, and that enterprises are taking security and usability seriously. It’s taken a while, but it’s great to see security and usability starting to come together.

FB: What are the main challenges you want to see the biometrics industry address in 2018?

HYPR: I think there’s still a blind spot in terms of education about where and how user credentials are stored. Although, we’re getting more comfortable with biometrics, we’re not asking deeper questions about how to balance the convenience of these platforms with the measures needed to secure them. Having all this technology at our fingertips is great, but after the moment of user authentication, we tend to move on without paying much attention to where our personal data lives for the longterm. It’s something we’re committed to changing in 2018.

FB: What excites you most about the year to come in biometrics?

HYPR: I’m optimistic that increased awareness about the mass credentials breaches of 2017 will mean that 2018 will be a great year for those serious about finding better ways to secure their organization. I’m also looking forward to the first real implementations of decentralized biometric authentication for the Internet of Things. I firmly believe that transportation is going to be a huge opportunity for biometrics to make a significant difference in the lives of millions.

FB: What is in store for your organization in 2018?

HYPR: In 2017 HYPR brought decentralized authentication to 25 million users across Fortune 500. In 2018 our goal is to increase that to 100 million across a variety of devices, applications, and operating systems. It’s particularly gratifying since we know our solution delivers trust to consumers, employees. IoT integrations are going to be huge in 2018, and HYPR is ready.