Biometric Technology Today • September 20036

financing

Biometric firms secure cashinjectionFingerprint technology suppliers Bioscrypt andUltra-Scan have successfully raised additionalfunds in separate deals to keep their businessesticking over.

Bioscrypt took the unusual step of securing adebenture of C$5 million, instead of opting for astraight financing deal. According to PierreDonaldson, president and CEO of Bioscrypt: “Interms of the choice of a debenture financing, theboard believes that this is a much better financialinstrument for Bioscrypt at this point in time, as wedid not want our shareholders to suffer the dilutionthat would result from a straight equity financing.”

The debenture, offered by JL Albright III VentureFund, is due for repayment on 23 June 2007 andwill bear interest of 11% payable monthly in arrears.The lender will also be issued just under two millionpurchase warrants which are exercisable over theterm of the debenture to purchase Bioscrypt’scommon shares at a price of C$0.58.

Ultra-Scan opted for a more traditionalfinancing agreement, securing US$18 million in adeal led by B.Thomas Golisano, who also joinedthe company’s board of directors.

Ultra-Scan’s biometric platform is based onreaders that use high-frequency sound waves forimaging. Its products include its LivescanUltrasound Identification System (which uses itsUltraTouch readers).

Contact: Bruce MacInnis at Bioscrypt,Tel: +1905 624 7709, email:bruce.macinnis@bioscrypt.com

Terry Dunlap at Ultra-Scan,Tel: +1 716 832 6269, email: tdunlap@ultra-scan.com

financials

Identix aims to keep up itsmomentumBetween US$65 million and US$100 million inbiometric contracts could be awarded before theend of 2003, according to Identix. Naturally, thecompany hopes to win a significant proportionof these deals, and believes its current‘momentum’ will prove to be key.

According to Joseph Atick, the supplier’s presidentand CEO: “A pervasive theme for the biometricsindustry and specifically for Identix this past quarter,and one we believe extends into our fiscal year 2004,

is ‘momentum’ – RFI momentum, RFP mom-entum, award momentum, pipeline momentum,backlog momentum, revenue momentum.”

Identix’s latest results and predictions for thefuture show how this momentum is manifestingitself in financial terms. Its fiscal 2003 fourthquarter revenue ended 30 June 2003 was US$23.1million, with a net loss of US$159.1 million(including a non-cash impairment charge totallingUS$154.8 million related primarily to company’smerger with Visionics Corporation in June 2002).The pro forma net loss was US$3.4 million, orUS$0.04 loss per share. This compares to its fiscal2002 fourth quarter revenue of US$17.7 million,with a net loss of US$33.3 million.

Significantly, product revenue for the fiscal2003 fourth quarter was US$13.2 million,compared with US$6.6 million in the fiscal 2002fourth quarter. This includes revenue from thesupplier’s biometric products and solutions, aswell as maintenance and services revenues relatedto those products.

Looking forward over the next year, Identix haspredicted its product revenue and pro forma netlosses will both steadily improve, so that by theend of June 2004, quarterly product revenue willbe in the US$17–19 million range and net lossesper share will be down to US$0.03–0.05.

Contact: Damon Wright at Identix,Tel: +1 952 979 8485, email:damon.wright@identix.com

acquisition

DICUT snaps up AuroraDICUT, a US security solutions provider, hassnapped up Aurora Biometrics as well as itsfounder, Helena Wisniewski. According toDICUT, the acquisition complements itsproduct range, making it a one-stop shop forphysical, logical and biometric security.

Aurora Biometrics’ iPass family of products,includes iPassThru, iPassOnline, SafeTravel andiPassDorm and can operate either with or withoutsmart cards or 2D barcodes, and in a standaloneor integrated format.

Wisniewski founded Aurora Biometrics inSeptember 2000, where she served as chairmanand CEO. Following the acquisition, she willbecome president of DICUT’s Aurora Biometricsdivision.

DICUT itself was founded in 1994 andprovides security solutions via two wholly-ownedsubsidiaries, veriCentrix and Detect-X.

Contact: Scott Eagle at DICUT,Tel: +1 770 952 2656, email: seagle@dicutinc.com

BUSINESS WATCH

C o m p a n yn e w s

• Eye-D-Signature has signed abusiness partner alliance agree-ment with Cognitec Systems.According to the agreement,Cognitec Systems will focus on research, development andimprovement of its facialrecognition technology, whileEye-D-Signature will focus ondeveloping new biometricproducts using the softwaredevelopment tools developed byCognitec Systems for biometricssecurity applications. Eye-D-Signature has already integratedthe facial recognition softwareinto its new Credit Card FraudSystem for e-commerce, whichidentifies fraudulent transactionsand the person that committedthe fraud in real time.

• Communication IntelligenceCorporation (CIC), a providerof biometric signature verifi-cation software, has announcedthat its 90% owned jointventure Communication Intel-ligence Computer Corporation(CICC) has obtained certifi-cation by the Chinese Ministryof Public Security for its Sign-itproduct line. Gaining officialcertification will help thecompany attract channelpartners capable of establishingChina-wide market coverageand penetration of the gov-ernment and financial servicemarkets, the company claims.Meanwhile, CICC has secureda contract with the ShanghaiModern Information Technol-ogy Institute for its InkToolsproduct, which includes Chi-nese handwriting recognitionand biometric signatureverification.

• ZN Vision Technologies, aGerman provider of automaticfacial recognition systems, hassigned a partnership agreementwith Oracle SurveillanceSystems, a security systemintegrator in the USA. Underthe agreement, ZN’s facialrecognition systems will bemarketed on the US market,especially for use in govern-ment applications.