Riga-based Handwave, a biometric startup based in Latvia, has raised €3.6 million in Seed funding to launch its palm-based fee and id platform in Europe and the US.
The spherical consists of backing from regional traders, led by Practica Capital, with assist from FirstPick, Outlast Fund and Inovo.vc, and can fund product growth, regulatory certifications, and reside retail pilots.
“We’re constructing the subsequent evolution in on a regular basis id and fee experiences,” says Jānis Stirna, Co-founder of Handwave. “The checkout course of in bodily shops remains to be stuffed with friction – digging for a pockets, opening apps, scanning loyalty playing cards or QR codes, verifying age whereas shopping for age-restricted objects. It’s gradual, clunky, and infrequently irritating. Handwave simplifies all of that with a single gesture. When folks hear they will pay, accumulate loyalty factors, and confirm their id simply by displaying their palm, they immediately grasp the comfort. It instantly clicks. We’re not simply innovating for the sake of expertise – we’re fixing a really actual and common downside for each clients and retailers.”
Based in 2021, Handwave turns your palm right into a safe, contactless approach to pay, show your age, activate immediate loyalties and test in – no playing cards, no telephones, no apps, no facial scans. Only a gesture.
The corporate’s founders and core workforce come from the finance and expertise industries, giving them an understanding of business wants in addition to the significance of safety, compliance, and comfort in fashionable options.
Handwave is reimagining how folks pay and confirm their id – changing playing cards, telephones, and even facial recognition with a easy palm scan. Utilizing proprietary expertise, the answer permits clients to simply onboard themselves, scan their palm utilizing their telephone digital camera, and hyperlink fee and loyalty playing cards, in addition to id credentials, to a safe digital pockets.
As soon as enrolled, customers can merely maintain their palm over a reader to pay, activate loyalty, or affirm their age – no apps, telephones, or wallets wanted at checkout.
The corporate says that in contrast to facial recognition, nevertheless, their tech doesn’t monitor your each transfer; and that in contrast to fingerprints, it’s far more durable to spoof. Handwave makes use of two forms of imaging – capturing each the floor traces and subdermal vein construction of your palm – to construct a singular, encrypted ID. Every scan is reportedly backed up by its personal distinctive algorithm – offering 2-factor authentication.
Handwave’s platform serves three key buyer teams:
- Non-public people who search sooner, extra seamless in-store checkout with out juggling loyalty playing cards or unlocking units.
- Retailers and retailers who wish to scale back friction at checkout, improve buyer expertise, and entry sensible companies like built-in age verification and loyalty integration.
- Buying service suppliers, monetary establishments, funds operators and banks – each shopper and business-to-business by way of partnerships
For retailers, Handwave affords a software to extend throughput, simplify compliance, and digitise buyer relationships – with out requiring costly {hardware} upgrades or costly loyalty tokenisation.
“Handwave demonstrates the sort of daring considering we search for in native Baltic Founders,” mentioned Arvydas Blože, Companion at Practica Capital. “The concept which you could securely pay or confirm your id with nothing however your palm – with no need to take out a telephone – is not only futuristic, it’s imminently sensible. Their expertise is daring, intuitive, and solutions an actual want in right this moment’s more and more digital world. And we imagine that Handwave is on the forefront.”
To this point, Handwave has raised €4.3 million in complete funding, together with an earlier €682k angel funding. The corporate is at present getting ready for market pilots, deepening its biometric infrastructure, and fascinating its service provider partnerships throughout the Baltics and past.
