The biometric payments company Solidus Networks Inc. has made good on its promise to invest in rewards technology by purchasing Capture Resource Inc. of Bristol, Pa., which manages loyalty programs and offers business process outsourcing.
Solidus, which is based in San Francisco and operates under the Pay By Touch brand, said Friday that it had bought Capture Resource the day before. It did not say what it had paid.
"The loyalty solutions part of our business is one in which we've been investing quite a bit," said John Morris, Solidus' president and chief operating officer. "This is where Capture Resource fits in."
In October, Solidus received $130 million in funding from various investors and said it would use the money to expand its capabilities in loyalty programs, biometric technology, and payment processing.
Solidus has said that its biometric payment system can provide more accurate consumer data than retail reward cards, and it wants to link the two technologies better.
Solidus' merchant customers install fingerprint readers at cash registers. Consumers enroll in a merchant's system by providing a fingerprint and payment information, such as a bank account or credit card number; on subsequent visits they can authorize payments from any of their accounts with a fingerprint.
Solidus says its system can track spending more accurately than loyalty cards, which can be shared.
Next year the company plans to offer a loyalty program called SmartShop, which it developed with Green Hills Farm Store Inc. of Syracuse, N.Y. Unlike the typical program that offers all customers the same discounts when they use their loyalty cards, SmartShop tailors offers to customers on the basis of their buying habits.
Mr. Morris said that it plans to integrate Capture Resource's products into SmartShop during the first quarter. Solidus will then be able to offer a version of SmartShop that uses loyalty cards instead of biometrics.
"Our fundamental biometrics solution obviates the need for a card," he said, but Solidus recognizes that some merchants may be more interested in its loyalty program than its biometric technology.
Dan Schatt, a senior analyst for the Boston market research firm Celent Communications LLC, said that "it makes so much sense for … [biometric payments] companies to pursue loyalty programs and acquisitions in the loyalty space."
He said that Solidus' pending acquisition of CardSystems Solutions Inc., a merchant payment processing provider, though addressing a different merchant need, also works to the company's advantage. That deal was announced in October.
Since biometric payments are a nascent market, coupling the technology with more established merchant services is a good marketing move, he said.
