A Chinese startup wants to use biometric technology to replace tellers and bank cards, and Alibaba's financial arm, Alipay, has joined Megvii Inc.'s mission.
News reports revealed on Thursday that Alipay, which operates in a similar manner to PayPal, has approached the Chinese government for regulatory approval to access China's national police database, which would provide the company with photographic information for its biometric plan.
Alipay wants its customers to be able to open new accounts without the need to be physically present in one of its "meatspace" offices, which is where Megvii comes in. Megvii's Face++ facial recognition system is the key to open the lock that has prevented financial businesses from offering such convenience in the past.
Megvii's application can confirm the identity of potential customers by aligning a customer's facial features with those stored in China's police database--but Alipay needs access first.
The Ministry of Public Security database reportedly stores the identification files of approximately 1.3 billion Chinese citizens.
In a Jan. 22 interview, chief executive and cofounder of Megvii, Yin Qi, stated that he dropped out of Columbia University's doctorate program in computer science to follow his biometric passion. At the time of the interview, his company had partnered with a number of China's banks to design biometric devices and machines to supersede the technology of last century.
In Yin's words, the team of Megvii, which consist of 50 employees, "hope to create an eye for all kinds of devices." The 27-year-old's startup raised $22 million in funding in November, and Megvii is now valued at $100 million.
In terms of Alipay, Yin explained: "In terms of technology, everything has been sorted. We are just waiting for regulators to approve."
If successful, Alibaba will sit alongside Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Baidu Inc. in the biometric stakes.