Warwick Warp raises £600K to develop fingerprint recognition technology

Licensing and partnership opportunities

Warwick University spin-out Warwick Warp, assisted by business specialist James Cowper, has secured £600,000 to develop its fingerprint recognition technology. The funds were put forward by an investing syndicate led by Synergis Technologies, and included Mathematical Capital.

Warwick Warp, a biometrics technology company, has developed improved fingerprint recognition technologies that provide accurate matching and rapid recognition of poor quality fingerprints. Its technology takes into account linear and non-linear deformation, background contrast and incorporates third-level features such as sweat pore measurements.

This technology, which is available for licensing, targets the global biometrics market, expected to reach £3 billion by 2010. Warwick Warp is also looking for partnerships with market leaders.

Bill Joss, chairman of Warwick Warp, said: “Although current fingerprint recognition technologies can satisfactorily process good quality images, the problem with these systems lies with their inability to process poor quality fingerprints. This is where we believe Warwick Warp has a unique advantage – the ability of its algorithms to extract meaningful data from poor quality images.”

Li Wang, Chief Technology Officer of Warwick Warp, said: “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 at Synergis, said: “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 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 from James Cowper said: “Warwick Warp demonstrated to investors clear technical advantages that are crucial to potential customers, such as those operating border controls or providing access to large public venues, which demand rapid and accurate throughput. The team has successfully developed key partnerships in the security sector, and are well positioned to take advantage of a worldwide need.”