Facial recognition involves the use of facial image scanning to authenticate identities. There are many technologies that come together to make facial recognition work and help achieve a slew of goals. In the current era, facial recognition has found application in some aspects such as smartphone security, intelligent shopping, air travel, law enforcement, and more. However, this tech is yet to become mainstream in our daily lives.
As of now, it is used to unlock a smartphone, but it is likely to become a major tech in the coming years. There is an increase in the adoption of this tech with other aspects such as deep learning algorithms that help identify an individuals identity. And, a slew of startups have already started selling facial recognition as their core tech. These companies use algorithms to identify people accurately.
Talking about facial recognition startups, Europe is home to numerous such companies and here we list 10 such companies betting big on this biometric authentication process.
Herta Security (Spain)
CEO: Javier Rodriguez Saeta
Funding: €50k
Founded year: 2009
Why its hot: Herta Security operates with the mission to increase the security of the world with the implementation of facial recognition technologies. The company does this by facilitating the integration of products as well as applications in the field of security. The company aspires to become a global leader in the development of software solutions for biometric security applications.
Realeyes (UK)
Founders: Elnar Hajiyev, Martin Salo, Mihkel Jäätma
Funding: €33 million
Founded year: 2007
Why its hot: London-based Realeyes uses AI-powered emotion software to help brands such as Coca-Cola, Expedia and AT&T maximise the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns. Recently, the company raised around €11 million funding to drive its expansion into Japan and develop its technology so that it can dive into new markets such as robotics, smart cities, and mental wellbeing.
Authenteq (Iceland)
Founders: Adam H. Martin, Kari Thor Runarsson, Runar Karlsson
Funding: €6.4 million
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Authenteq is an automated identity verification platform, which lets users verify their identity and create sovereign digital IDs. The data will be encrypted and stored in a blockchain so that the personal details are private and secure and cannot be accessed by anyone. The AI-driven platform automatically distinguishes between a robotic fraudster and a human being.
Loqr (Portugal)
Founders: Jorge Silva, José Ribeiro Dias, Ricardo Costa
Funding: €1.2 million
Founded year: 2015
Why its hot: Loqr provides a Unified Identity Management Platform, which is a single integrated and centralised solution to provide identity verification, and identity engagement including risk based strong adaptive authentication and identity provider. Loqr provides a centralised customer-centric mobile-first one-stop-shop to manage the complete lifecycle of a digital identity with the best privacy and security standards.
WISeKey (Switzerland)
Founders: Carlos Moreira
Funding: €141 million
Founded year: 1999
Why its hot: WISeKey is one of the leading global cybersecurity companies that deploys large scale digital identity ecosystems for both people and objects using blockchain, IoT and Artificial Intelligence. Its semiconductors secure the pervasive computing shaping the current world wherein the internet is everything. As of now, WISeKey has installed over 1 billion microchips in all IoT sectors including smart cities, connected cars, smart lights, mobile phones, etc.
OneVisage (Switzerland)
Founders: Christophe Remillet, Ronni Guggenheim
Funding: €360k
Founded year: 2013
Why its hot: OneVisage offers best-in-class authentication solutions to OEM integrators to help secure any mid-high value transactions and safeguard confidential and valuable data and assets by preventing identity theft as well as counterfeiting. The company’s SDKs are hardware and platform agnostic and have been designed to provide complete data protection and privacy.
Facesoft (UK)
Founders: Allan Ponniah, Stefanos Zafeiriou
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Facesoft uses machine learning algorithms that generate millions of face identities. It also uses its proprietary Deep Convolutional Neural Networks that can harness all the available information. The company’s face recognition tech has been tested in several challenging situations and has been found to be one of the best in the world. Facesoft touts that its tech is highly flexible and is suitable for many applications.
EmotionReader (Ireland)
Founders: Pádraig O’Leary, Stephen Moore
Funding: Acquired by Kairos
Founded year: 2017
Why its hot: Kairos, the face recognition technology, which is used for brand marketing the acquired EmotionReader in 2018. EmotionReader uses algorithms to analyse facial expressions in video content. The startup lets brands and marketers measure viewers’ emotional response to videos via an analytics dashboard and make different decisions.
VisionLabs (Netherlands)
Founders: Alexander Khanin, Alexey Nekhaev, Ivan Laptev
Funding: €5 million
Founded year: 2012
Why its hot: VisionLabs is one of the leading face recognition and analysis solutions vendors. Its products are based on state-of-the-art algorithms and technologies, developed by the company. The company operates through the network of partners and deliver quality solutions globally to the security, banking, retail, construction, transportation and other industries.
Vision-Box (Portugal)
Founders: Bento Correia, Paulo Heleno
Founded year: 2001
Why its hot: Vision-Box is a leading solution provider of seamless passenger experiences and contactless airport journeys. The company partners with travel and government stakeholders to design and implement modern programs that span across the entire passenger journey and turn the transportation ecosystem into a fully digital and connected one.
Stock photo from Zapp2Photo/Shutterstock
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