Ipsidy says it made steady progress in building ‘trusted identity’ in 2019, sees remote working opportunities

Ipsidy Inc (OTCQB:IDTY), which operates an Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform that delivers biometric identity solutions, said it made great strides in building “trusted identity” last year as it reported full-year 2019 financial and business results. In a statement accompanying the New York biometric security specialist’s latest numbers, Ipsidy CEO Philip Beck said: “As a result of our engagement with business partners in 2019, we have fine-tuned our approach to the market to reflect the solutions that customers are demanding and simplified the way users interact with our solutions.” He added: “Recent developments have only highlighted the expanding need for remote onboarding of users, verifying identity and authenticating transactions everywhere. The Ipsidy team continues to work on closing opportunities in the EMEA, LATAM and US regions, with a focus on the financial, telecommunication and logistics sectors.” READ: Ipsidy and Skypatrol announce launch of biometric SkyOne lock The Ipsidy boss said the company made progress in 2019 in executing its “trusted identity” strategy. Ipsidy ran pilots and workshops with a number of reseller and technology partners and potential customers. “The identity solutions market is rapidly developing and increasing demand for verifying digital identity during remote onboarding and digital transactions can be seen in our pipeline,” noted the company. Secure access to corporate networks is not new, but the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is forcing companies and educational institutions to increasingly shift work online, where security is paramount, which offers a large opportunity for Ipsidy, as a dominant player in the crucial multi-factor authentication and identity management space. “We believe our products and services are well equipped to help those organizations adopting remote working and learning, and substantially improve how they can confidently grant access only to those who are entitled to such access,” the biometric security specialist said. For the year ended December 2019, Ipsidy posted revenue of $2.6 million, compared to $3.8 million for the year ended December 2018. The company noted that its results in 2018 reflected the one-time supply of Search, the company’s Automated Fingerprint Identification System to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission, offset by revenue increases in 2019 from new products and Cards Plus. It's net loss for the full-year was $10.5 million, compared to a net loss of $10 million for the earlier year, principally as a result of a non-cash charge, or write-down linked to a goodwill impairment loss of around $1.5 million.  For the year ended December 2019, the company posted a net loss per share of $0.02. The company posted an underlying earnings (EBITDA) loss in 2019 of $6.4 million, compared to an adjusted EBITDA loss of $6 million for the year ended December 2018, as Ipsidy said it invested in the technical and operational resources required to boost its future operations. Ipsidy secured around $3.6 million of additional equity and convertible debt investment during 2019 and a further $1.5 million of convertible debt investment in February 2020.   In a big win, Ipsidy Peru SAC forged a pact with RENIEC, the South American country's national ID registry, which issues electronic national ID cards, to channel Ipsidy’s Proof platform in Peru. Proof by Ipsidy is a mobile identity verification solution using government-issued credentials, combined with real-time biometrics. Under the deal, Ipsidy will be able to connect its IDaaS platform to RENIEC in Peru to submit facial biometric and national ID card data for validation against RENIEC's own national identity records. In another promising deal, Ipsidy and Skypatrol LLC are bringing SkyOne lock — which combines mobile, biometric identity authentication services and GPS technology — to market.  Contact the author Uttara Choudhury at uttara@proactiveinvestors.com Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive