PopID gets equity financing to build global biometric network infrastructure

PopID has received equity financing with investments from Verifone, Chipotle’s Cultivate Next venture fund, Commerce Ventures, PayPal and Visa Ventures.

The financing comes as Verifone and PopID pair biometrics with payments and loyalty transactions in a global partnership announced earlier this year.

The partnership sees the creation of biometric modules consisting of biometric sensors and software to allow existing Verifone or third-party payment terminals to accept face and palm authentication.

“The additional capital will allow us to work with our partners to build critical infrastructure to support an open loop, global biometric network that can connect point of sale solutions to any loyalty program, card payment method, fintech wallet, buy now/pay later platform, stable coin product, or pay-by-scheme,” says John Miller, CEO of PopID.

Verifone is retrofitting existing terminals to accept face and palm authentication and embedding biometrics in all future Verifone terminals. The joint solution leverages Verifone’s global assets of 45 million devices, of which 15 million run 200 proprietary payment applications managed by Verifone’s cloud-based device management platform.

It includes integrations with 2,500 ECRs/POSs, 150-plus payment processors, and acceptance of over 40 global, local and alternate payment methods. Verifone CEO Himanshu Patel commented: “Our strategic partnership and investment in PopID furthers our decades-long mission to innovate in the payments space for merchants and consumers.

“I am confident that together with PopID we will see widespread global adoption of PopID’s technology in the coming years.”

Last year, J.P. Morgan expanded biometric payments pilots in retail spaces across the U.S. in a partnership with PopID. PopID has previously received investments from Cali Group and the Ching family. PopID was incubated by Cali Group, a retail technology holding company.