Zwipe Charts Biometric Card Progress in Q3 Update

Zwipe has issued an operational update for the third quarter of the year, highlighting recent developments in its efforts toward the commercialization of biometric payment cards.

Particular highlights include commercial orders from Taiwan’s Beautiful Card Corporation and Beirut-based Inkript, as well as the news that an unnamed Tier 1 smart card maker embarked upon a comprehensive evaluation of Zwipe’s solution. The quarter also saw the launch of multiple biometric payment card pilots: a multi-bank effort coordinated by the issuer Middle East Payment Services; a multi-country pilot program launched by a European Tier 1 bank; and a pilot and subsequent launch from Reltime, a DeFi startup.

In addition to these developments, Zwipe CEO André Løvestam noted the establishment of ‘key go-to-market partnerships’ with ICPS, NymCard, Que Processing Services and Credit Card Management, saying these would have a ‘megaphone effect’ in terms of raising Zwipe’s profile across the MENA and Asia markets.

All of these developments concern Zwipe Pay ONE, the company’s biometric card solution, which enables fingerprint recognition on the card in order to authenticate transactions. In a letter to shareholders this past summer, Løvestam asserted that his firm had “passed most critical milestones and major risk points” in the solution’s development, opening the door to a phase of pilots and certifications before finally moving on to commercialization.

“All in all, I am happy to report that we continue to experience broad-based acknowledgement of Zwipe’s competitiveness and value add for the industry from all parts of the payment ecosystem,” Løvestam said in the company’s latest update.

As for financials, revenues for the quarter amounted to roughly 400,000 NOK, while monthly operational cash flow intensified from MNOK -4.4 a year ago to MNOK -5.3 in the most recent quarter, a change that the company attributed to “recruitments and higher activity”.

Notably, Zwipe received an investment of NOK 104 million from Erik Selin, a prominent Swedish investor, in a 4 million-share private placement. The company’s cash balance stood at NOK 183.7 million at the end of Q3, and having received full forgiveness for a PPP loan, the company is currently free of debt.

–

October 28, 2021 – by Alex Perala