A month after investing $1 million in start-up company Reporty Homeland Security, former prime minister and minister of defense Ehud Barak continues to deepen his relationship with the Israel's world of start-ups. Today, FST Biometrics, which is developing biometric identification technology, announced that it had raised $15 million from GMF Capital, the investment vehicle controlled and led by Gary Fegel. Barak joined the investor group, and will be GMF Capital's representative on the FST Biometrics Board.
So far, the Rishon LeZion-based company has raised a total of $23.5 million. Eitan Wertheimer and Israeli investment fund LV Holdings are among its investors.
“Based on my deep knowledge of Israel’s security ecosystem and the secure access solutions market, I am convinced that FST Biometrics has developed the market leading Secure Identification solution for today’s market and that of the foreseeable future," Barak said, adding, “I look forward to supporting the company’s efforts.”
“The last six months have proven that the market is not only ready for but is actively seeking out our solutions,” said Major General Aharon Zeevi Farkash, founder and Chief Executive Officer of FST Biometrics and former director of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Directorate of Military Intelligence. “GMF Capital’s investment is an important validation of our technology and vision while the expertise of Prime Minister Barak and Gary Fegel will be critical in supporting FST’s growth and market acceptance over the next few years,“ Farkash said.
“GMF Capital is constantly assessing a broad range of global investment opportunities but only invests in a limited number of businesses of the highest quality. I strongly believe that FST Biometrics stands out as a best-in-class technology solution with a strong, motivated management team poised to disrupt the existing market and deliver attractive growth,“ said Fegel.
The In Motion Identification (IMID) solution of FST Biometrics (formerly FST21) is a unique fusion of facial recognition and behavioral analytics providing seamless secure access solutions to the global marketplace. The FST IMID technology enables authorized individuals to be identified at a distance and uniquely, while in-motion. There is no requirement that authorized users slow down or stop, as the company’s technology provides a seamless access control experience that it says is highly accurate, reliable and totally non-intrusive.
According to FST its solution has a wide range of global applications across the public and private sectors and is already successfully serving clients within the corporate, retail, financial services, telecommunications, residential and governmental sectors. The company also says that its technology has a broad set of applications beyond the traditional access control market that it is actively developing.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on May 11, 2015
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