Facial recognition is a booming business! It has transformed the way we live in 2019, opening up exciting possibilities and posing new dangers. At present, we use facial recognition when unlocking a smartphone or laptop, but it will soon play a major role in everything right from booking a taxi to ordering food.
Facial recognition is a form of biometric authentication that uses body measurements to verify your identity. It identifies people by measuring the unique shape and structure of the face. While the tech is highly controversial, with privacy as a point of concern, it leads to creating applications that serve a different purpose. Today, a bunch of companies right from startups to tech giants are selling face recognition services to hotels, retail stores and other places.
The business is thriving, thanks to algorithms that can identify people with more accuracy. Europe is nowhere behind in this technology and these 10 facial recognition startups have created some of the most valuable products in this segment to compete with their Silicon Valley competitors. Let’s take a look.
Looksery (Odessa, Ukraine)
Funding: €50K
Now acquired by Snapchat, an Odessa-based image-processing startup Looksery provides face tracking and modifying technologies for real-time video and mobile social engagement solutions. Looksery B2C app provides live augmented reality filters for selfies. Using face tracking Looksery identifies all facial features, tracks and maps facial expressions and emotions.
Masquerade (Belarus)
Funding: €910K
Just like Looksery, MSQRD allows applying various filters to your selfies or real-time videos through face recognition technology and sharing them on social networks. Three years ago, Facebook bought the company characterising it as “a fantastic app with world-class imaging technology for video.
FittingBox (France)
Funding: €5.6M
FittingBox develops virtual eyewear fitting solutions on the Internet for branded sites. Founded by Ariel Choukroun, Benjamin Hakoun, they are the inventors of the first digital mirror allowing you to virtually try on glasses using AR technology. The company has registered 12 patents for technological innovations representing $1.7 million in R&D investment in 2017.
OneVisage (Switzerland)
Funding: €360K
One Visage is a cybersecurity company that offers a digital identity platform to various service and operators. The company makes use of their proprietary 3DAuth digital identity technology that can be installed on any consumer mobile phone instead of the current password-based and biometric solutions.
Reminiz (France)
Funding: €2M
Founded by Jack Habra, Reminiz is a face recognition app that enables its users to identify celebrities through a smartphone. It scans celebrity images and displays information such as news, social network accounts, biographies, and more.
Modcam (Sweden)
Funding: €7.8M
Modcam has developed a sensor simply based on a camera module and software that enables advanced image processing in a short time. It can anonymously measure movement patterns and queues in buildings without falling under the camera monitoring law or GDPR. It was founded in late 2013 by Bogdan Tudosoiu, Jan Erik Solem, Tord Wingren and Karl-Anders Johansson.
AIMatters (Belarus)
Now acquired by Google, AIMATTER specialises in building next-gen apps with proprietary advanced image processing technologies. Founded by Yuri Gurski, its SDK can run deep learning models in real-time directly on smartphones.
DeepArt.io (Germany)
DeepArt is a web-based application that enables its users to turn photographs into artworks. The company is on a mission to provide a novel artistic painting tool that allows everyone to create and share artistic pictures.
Banuba (Belarus)
Funding: €11.4M
Founded by Viktor Prokopenya, Banuba is an artificial intelligence lab specializing in computer vision and augmented reality. The company develops computer vision technologies that allow developers to create an endless spectrum of filters, augmented 3D models and more, all utilizing the capabilities of the mobile camera.
Loqr (Portugal)
Funding: €1.2M
Loqr provides Identity Authentication security solutions. Operate in Europe and Asia, this platform provides a single integrated and centralized solution to provide identity verification, identity engagement and identity provider.
Stay tuned to Silicon Canals for more updates in the tech startup world.
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