Kansas City Start-Up Roadmaps Chinese Acquisition

EyeVerify, a technology company launched in 2012 has successfully navigated acquisition by China’s Ant Financial, a member of the Alibaba Group of financial service providers. The deal, reportedly closing at around $100 million dollars, can serve as an example for other payments tech start-ups aiming to make it big in the fast-paced payments space.

EyeVerify provides a secure log-in option that maps the veins in a users’ eye to confirm identity. The verification is akin to fingerprint identification, with a 99.8% accuracy rate, and takes place solely on the consumer’s mobile device, with EyeVerify retaining no biometric information. In the U.S., banks including Wells Fargo and Tangerine have used EyeVerify, but in China, the tech will be applied to Alipay’s mobile peer-to-peer payments system, advancing and securing mobile payment adoption.

In EyeVerify’s press release Jason Lu, Ant Financial Vice President of Fraud Risk Management said, “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. It is an important extension of our efforts to accelerate the global adoption of secure mobile payments and allows us to improve our overall risk management.”

The acquisition is described by EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush as, “an extension of a relationship that we as a company have developed with Alipay over the past year.” From licensing agreements to acquisition, EyeVerify demonstrates success in navigating the burgeoning, yet sometimes hard to crack, Chinese market.