SmartMetric Gets New Funding to Make Biometric Chip Cards

The biometric security company SmartMetric Inc. has secured an additional $1 million in funding from investors.

The vendor will use the new funding to complete its production facilities in Buenos Aires, where it is based. It plans to use these facilities to manufacture fingerprint-activated EMV chip cards.

EMV cards provide additional security over magnetic-stripe cards, which are easily read by commonly available computer equipment. In addition to the security in the chip, many EMV cards also use a PIN to further guard against fraud.

SmartMetric's fingerprint technology allows biometric authentication within 60 seconds, the company says. Fingerprint identification provides more security than a standard PIN, it says (see story).