News

SmartMetric secures $1 million in funding

June 13, 2012

SmartMetric Inc., developer of "Secured by Biometrics" credit and identity cards, announced that it has obtained an additional $1 million in private funding.

The company said the funds will be applied to operations, most directly toward completion of production facilities in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with the installation of robotic assembly equipment. This will finalize full-scale manufacturing capabilities for SmartMetric's enhanced fingerprint activated EMV Cards, the company said in a press release.

Smart Metric was most recently in the news this April, when the company lost on appeal a lawsuit it had brought against Visa, MasterCard and American Express. In the complaint, SmartMetric claimed that the card companies' use of contactless smartcard payment violated a patent it holds on a process for such payments.

The courts ruled against SmartMetric in the case because the company's patent specifies insertion of a smartcard into a reader — a process not required for contactless payments. SmartMetric has since interpreted the court's observations about card reader insertion to mean that it will win its pending suit against the card companies over the question of contact payments.

In a press statement, Chaya Hendrick, president and CEO of SmartMetric said, "With the recent appeals court ruling on the SmartMetric patent law suit against Visa and MasterCard favoring SmartMetric on EMV contact cards, SmartMetric is in a position to corner the market on nearly every EMV credit or debit card issued and to be issued in the U.S. — already 1.5 million — as well as new business opportunities worldwide."

According to SmartMetric, its solution combines both chip and biometric identifiers in a smartcard, providing superior security to the EMV chip and PIN standard. To date, the company has not produced its card solution in marketable quantities.

For more on this topic, visit the EMV research center.