Ant Financial, the financial services affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., has acquired EyeVerify Inc. to expand services using the U.S. startup’s biometric authentication technology for securing consumers’ online data and transactions.
Ant Financial is reportedly paying US$70 million for the Kansas City, Missouri-based company, which uses pictures of the human eyeball as a way to verify identity.
After the completion of the transaction, a first in the U.S. for Ant Financial, EyeVerify will become a wholly owned unit of the buyer.
"The acquisition of EyeVerify is a critical part of our effort to make bold, yet thoughtful moves to continually enhance user trust, safety, and experience," says Jason Lu, vice president of fraud risk management at Ant Financial, in a statement.
Earlier this year, Ant Financial and EyeVerify agreed to integrate Eyeprint ID into Ant Financial’s payment authentication platform. The acquisition will allow the technology to be integrated into more Ant Financial products for its 450 million users.
EyeVerify checks identities through eye-vein patterns and creates a digital key equal to a 50-character complex password. Users hold their smartphone about 12 inches from their face so a picture can be taken, opening up apps or websites on their device. The company says the technology is more than 99.99% accurate, making passwords a thing of the past.
Founded in 2012, the startup has raised US$13 million from backers including Wells Fargo & Co., Samsung Electronics Co., Sprint Corp., and Chinese security giant Qihoo 360 Technology Co.