Line-Busting Biometric Startup Sees $15M In Private Equity

A biometric security startup with a fast growing membership-based secure identification program just recently scored a considerable amount of additional funding.

CLEAR, the popular security line-busting experience that can be found at some 21 airports and six baseball stadiums around the U.S., just recently received $15 million in private equity funding from asset management firm T. Rowe Price to enable the biometric security firm to grow their presence.

Members of CLEAR get fast tracked through lines at participating locations using fingerprint identification. Since it was founded in 2010, the company has reportedly accrued over 1 million members and is now partially owned by Delta Airlines.

The company will soon add LAX to its list of airports leveraging its service.

“We are obsessed with our customers and can’t wait to bring them more ways to use CLEAR,” CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker told TechCrunch. “We lead the industry in secure biometric-powered customer experiences and the opportunities to expand into new verticals are endless.”

These new verticals Seidman-Becker referred to include creating biometric authentication technologies to enable seamless payments and money transfers.

“We see a frictionless future where people no longer need to carry cash, credit cards or IDs with them,” Seidman-Becker was quoted as saying. “Our simple tap and go experience will fundamentally change the way we live, work and interact with the world.”

A number of industries regard biometric technologies as the future direction of identity authentication. In the payments world, it’s one segment of many strong authentication options that look to finally bring an end to the era of the password and PIN.

Despite handling sensitive data and processes in online channels, usernames and passwords remain a notable weak spot across internet users. As the number of cyberattacks rises on a global scale, especially account takeovers and card-not-present fraud, password compromise is often to blame.