Veteran of FinovateSpring 2013, EyeVerify won first place at the Get in the Ring international investment competition sponsored by the Erasmus Centre for Entrepreneurship in Rotterdam.
EyeVerify, which is based in Kansas City, Kansas, beat seven other finalists to win what CEO Toby Rush called “the Olympics for startups.” More than 1,000 startups participated in the competition, representing more than 30 countries, including Canada, Spain, Greece and Bulgaria.
For winning first place, EyeVerify will have a shot at angel investment worth up to €1 million (approximately $1.3 million USD). The company won a cash award of $10,000 after beating eight U.S. finalists to qualify for the international round. EyeVerify also picked up a $1,000 Apple gift card for being voted the “crowd favorite”.
Video also available at YouTube.
EyeVerify’s technology uses “eyeprints” to authenticate. Eyeprints are pictures of the small patterns of veins in the whites of the eyes. These patterns are unique and the eyeprints taken of them have fingerprint-level accuracy. The camera on a typical smart phone or tablet, according to EyeVerify, provides more than enough resolution for effective “eyeprints” to be taken easily.
To see EyeVerify’s technology at work, here’s a link to their FinovateSpring demo from earlier this year in San Francisco. The company has raised $3.8 million in funding.