State-of-the-Art facial recognition software combines user friendliness with full privacy protection.

Enschede, November 12, 2019 – 20Face today announces it has closed a new VC funding round led by Value Creation Capital and Oost NL. The investment will be used to further strengthen the organisation as well as to help the company in addressing new market segments and facilitating (inter)national growth.

20Face is a spin off from the University of Twente and as a result has access to decades of scientific knowledge. The company has developed a self enrollment system that puts the user in full control of being recognized. This privacy proof biometrics and personal data release management platform is used in combination with state- of- the- art facial recognition technology. The company’s patented and in-house trained algorithms allow facial recognition that is very robust to lighting conditions, pose variations, low resolutions and even partly occluded faces. User-controlled enrollment and seamless day-to-day use add to the user friendliness and consumer acceptation of the system. Moreover, the system is mostly cloud based and provides full privacy protection. The technology is marketed as a key enabler in several domains, varying from hospitality, security, ticketing and healthcare to smart home, automotive and smart office applications. In these domains the technology is currently demonstrated and licensed to national and international B2B partners.

“We believe that putting the user in control is the path to unleashing the potential of biometric recognition and controlling the power of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and data-infringement at the same time. We combine several innovative technologies (AI, Cloud & Blockchain) into one unique proposition that excites the marketplace every time we demonstrate it.” Says Peter Hoekstra, CEO of 20Face. “We now have the funding to keep investing in our platform, while our partners roll out there enhanced products in several markets”.

Willem van den Berg, Managing Partner Value Creation Capital/Security of Things Fund adds: “We see a large potential in the AI driven privacy proof facial recognition technology platform. The vision of the team strongly fits with the growing market for facial recognition”.

Tim Markus, senior investment manager at Oost NL: “20Face demonstrated the feasibility of their ambitious claims. We are glad to further support their growth. Innovative companies that operate on the forefront of key enabling technologies such as AI and Blockchain are of importance for our region”.