Ant Financial, Alibaba's finance arm, has recently bought EyeVerify Inc, a U.S. biometric authentication tech startup, in an effort to provide its consumers with better data security in their transactions, the company said in a statement, China Daily reported.
"The acquisition of EyeVerify is a critical part of our effort to make bold, yet thoughtful moves to continually enhance users' trust, safety, and experience," Jason Lu, vice-president of fraud risk management at Ant Financial, said in the statement. "It is an important extension of our efforts to accelerate the global adoption of secure mobile payments and allows us to improve our overall risk management."
EyeVerify said it will continue to operate in Kansas, Missouri as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ant Financial. The company uses pictures of the human eyeball to unlock mobile services.
"Ant Financial is paying about $70 million for the acquisition," sources familiar with the matter said.
The acquisition, which is Ant's first investment in the U.S., was aimed at enhancing the company's security systems, which it could eventually use for a U.S. product in the future.
Ant Financial and EyeVerify have signed a licensing agreement earlier this year, enabling Eyeprint ID to be integrated into Ant Financial's payment authentication platform.
Ant Financial established Alipay in 2004, as an online payments system like a Paypal for its e-commerce sites. From there, the company has expanded into an Internet finance empire offering a range of services, from Internet banking to credit ratings provider. In 2011, a spinoff of the company placed it under Jack Ma, Alibaba founder and executive chairman.
Earlier this year, the company was able to raise $4.5 billion with a reported valuation of $60 billion, making it the country's most valuable financial technology firm.
Eric Jing, president of Ant, said that the company hopes to replicate its success globally with the goal to increase its users to two billion within 10 years.