Touche, a Singapore-based startup, raised $2 million in funding last June and is expanding into restaurants and stores this yr, allowing customers to register with their fingerprints and fasten bank card aliases so that they can use their fingerprint on any Touche device around the globe.
It works like this: The first time you visit a merchant, you pay with a bank card and use the device to link the cardboard to your unique, physical signature. The device scans your index and middle fingers and links them to your profile. The next time you visit the shop, you’ll be able to make a purchase order by tapping your fingers on the device to authorize payment.
But the devices are only available in just a few locations for now, and consumer acceptance rates have yet to be determined. While increasingly more airports around the globe are requiring biometric information, it’s unclear how willing customers will likely be at hand over their fingerprints for the promise of greater convenience.
“Is it their problem? I would be lying if I said it wasn’t,” Sahba Saint-Claire, founding father of Touché, told CNBC. “But I’ve had women in their 60s sign up, millennials sign up, and people in suits sign up, so I think the solution we’re talking about transcends age, gender and race.”
Touché says its product goes beyond a mobile payment solution. In addition to payments, biometrics also record the contents of a purchase order.
“What we allow merchants to do is know who is coming into their business and what they are eating, how much they are spending, what their preferences are, so they can actually replicate their repeat business,” Saint-Claire said.
The company charges suppliers an installation fee for every device and a monthly fee based on individual partner agreements.
Source : cnbc techinasia.com
