BiowatchID: Disrupting the Authentication Market

The Biowatch concept was born after co-founder Joe Rice patented vein recognition as a new biometric authentication solution, back in 1984. He envisioned the use of a watch that would recognise its users unique wrist vein pattern to grant access to stored credentials. A biometric watch that would be one’s ID. "This little miracle is where we come from and we gave it a name: wrist vein pattern recognition", says Matthias. The drawing of veins is unique to a person and this is what LeBracelet is looking at. It further monitors the presence of the wrist and automatically locks when detecting an opening. "A simple concept protected by patents that we want to license to brands so a maximum of wrists can welcome our solution in a near future", says Matthias.

Unlike activation by a lost/hacked/transferred PIN code and contrary to voice, faces or fingerprints that can easily be found on the internet or glass, wrist vein biometrics are resilient to attacks due to the hidden nature of the vein pattern and the difficulty to reproduce liveness guaranteeing activation by only the legitimate user. "LeBracelet is actually a Swiss knife for our digital era and a secure vault where your most private secret will be stored. Potentially a life saving product when it comes to access your medical records or bring your lost child home", carries on Matthias, "a single device to prove our identity or legitimacy to access services, devices and premises".

Matthias recognises himself as someone who has always been passionate about biometric authentication. During his time as a PhD student at IDIAP, he had a revelation while reading about Joe Rice’s patent. It took him just one day to learn more about Joe and another day to contact him and convince him to join him on the Biowatch adventure. Nearly 30 years after the patent on vein recognition, the duo founded BiowatchID. For Matthias, it was the time to transition from being an 'intellectual' to being an 'executive officer'. However, getting a handle on the magnitude of this innovation was no small feat. The entrepreneur scored a victory when acquaintances who first supported him to reach his vision, later on, facing bankruptcy, pointed their fingers at him "with no respect for the honest and passionate work done so far, regardless of success. I learnt about humankind and human kindness. I learnt about how important it is to communicate to entertain kindness", recalls Matthias. Nevertheless, he carried on with the idea that could someday play an important role in the fintech space. "Fintech companies risk their reputation with cybersecurity, with a weak point being the end user authentication. We help at that level and are proud to participate somehow by helping end users in managing the keys to their financial assets ", says Matthias.

Since founding in 2015, Matthias has successfully patented the solution to image the wrist vein pattern from a wearable device and had developed technology that acts as a wallet, a crypto wallet and a digital vault for its users. "We are raising 10 million dollars to build a password and PIN free world while preserving privacy. Big Brother or (yet little) Biowatch. It's up to you to choose the society you want your children to live in", says Matthias. He has decided to deliver a "better UX at every level but at no cost for our planet, meaning with outstanding energy efficiency" and likes to adorn himself as "slightly arrogant when it comes to challenge the status quo with face and fingerprint recognition, because we have better to offer than big brother to society".