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Oxford: James Cowper advises investment deal |
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| 30/04/2008 |
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James Cowper Corporate Finance has worked with biometric company Warwick Warp, a developer of fingerprint recognition technologies, to successfully raise £600,000 of investment.
The investing syndicate was led by Synergis Technologies and included Mathmatical Capital, both specialist early stage funders with a strong links to the security industry.
A spin-out from the University of Warwick, Warwick Warp has developed novel fingerprint recognition technologies that radically improve the matching accuracy and speed of the recognition process.
Current technologies suffer from their inability to deal with poor quality fingerprints casued by variable pressures, smears and changes in light, and therefore do not provide the high level of accuracy required in high security applications, such as passport control at airports.
Warwick Warp’s algorithms overcome these shortcomings by allowing for both linear and non-linear deformation in the measurement as well as allowing for variations in background contrast. Furthermore, the technology also incorprates third level features into the measurement such as sweat pores which increase accuracy in the match significantly.
The rapid worldwide growth of the biometrics sector can be attributed to several factors such as threats posed by terrorism, increasing movement of populations around the globe and the increase in user acceptance of the technology, as well as the demand for improved buildings access solutions and criminal identification. The global biometrics market is expected to reach $6bn by 2010.
Bill Joss, Chairman of Warwick Warp, explained: "Although current fingerprint recognition technologies can satisfactorily process good quality images, the problem with these systems lies with their inability to process poor quality prints. This is where we believe Warwick Warp has a unique advantage - the ability of its algorithms to extract meaningful data from poor quality images. This is particularly important for a large proportion of the population who are unable to give good quality fingerprints as a result of damage to their fingers."
Li Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Warwick Warp added: "The technology is also highly scalable. It, therefore, has the potential to operate on very large scale databases without compromising on speed and accuracy."
Terry Swainbank, Investment Director, Synergis Technologies stated:
"This is an exciting investment and we look forward to being a part of the development of this next generation in biometrics technology. The use of fingerprint recognition technology looks set to achieve rapid growth both in the UK and globally and there is a strong need for a system that can detect fingerprint images reliably and accurately."
Alastair Cavanagh of James Cowper said: “Warwick Warp demonstrated to investors clear technical advantages that are crucial to potential customers, such those operating border controls or providing access to large public venues, who demand rapid and accurate throughput. The team have successfully developed key parnerships in the security sector and are well positioned to take advantage of a worldwide need.”
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