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I will not miss Earnings Report on Thursday before mkt opens... Boom Time
The company pays for incomplete sentences that n a crappy PR: “Effective February 1, 2022, BIO-key International Inc’s (the “Company”) independent registered public accounting firm, Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger & Guttilla, P.C. Certified Public Accountants (“Rotenberg”), combined with Marcum LLP. Rotenberg continued to operate as an independent registered public accounting firm as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marcum LLP. “
Item 4.01 Changes in Registrant’s Certifying Accountant.
Effective February 1, 2022, BIO-key International Inc’s (the “Company”) independent registered public accounting firm, Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger & Guttilla, P.C. Certified Public Accountants (“Rotenberg”), combined with Marcum LLP. Rotenberg continued to operate as an independent registered public accounting firm as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Marcum LLP.
Rotenberg continued to serve as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm through the filing of the Company’s Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2022. On July 20, 2022, the Audit Committee of BIO-key approved the engagement of Marcum LLP to serve as the independent registered public accounting firm of the Company for the year ended December 31, 2022.
During the two years ended December 31, 2021 and through the date of this report, the Company did not consult Marcum LLP with respect to any of (i) the application of accounting principles to a specified transaction, either completed or proposed; (ii) the type of audit opinion that might be rendered on the Company’s financial statements; or (iii) any matter that was either the subject of a disagreement (as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(iv) of Regulation S-K) or an event of the type described in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
Rotenberg’s transition into Marcum has progressed and Rotenberg has formally resigned on July 20, 2022, as our independent registered public accounting firm and the services previously provided by Rotenberg will now be provided by Marcum LLP.
Rotenberg’s report on our financial statements for the fiscal years ended December 31, 2021, and 2020 did not contain an adverse opinion or a disclaimer of opinion, nor was it qualified or modified as to audit scope or accounting principles.
During the years ended December 31, 2021 and 2020 and the subsequent interim period through the quarter ended March 31, 2022 (i) we did not have any disagreements with Rotenberg on any matter of accounting principles or practices, financial statement disclosure or auditing scope or procedure, which disagreements, if not resolved to Rotenberg’s satisfaction, would have caused them to make reference thereto in their reports on the Company’s financial statements for such periods, and (ii) there were no reportable events, as defined in Item 304(a)(1)(v) of Regulation S-K.
Long Island University Reinvests in BIO-key's PortalGuard Identity and Access Management Platform to Address Security Requirements at Multiple Campuses
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. and WALL, N.J., July 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced that Long Island University (LIU), a private university with approximately 15,000 students and two primary campuses, LIU Post and LIU Brooklyn in New York State, has re-selected its PortalGuard IAM platform to once again protect its enterprise applications and data. The new agreement extends a customer relationship that BIO-key has had with LIU since 2015.
Breaches and cyberattacks against higher education institutions have increased significantly in the last year and pose a severe financial and reputational risk to these institutions. To fend off these cyber threats, institutions require a robust, proven IAM solution that can adapt to various secure access requirements successfully and cost-effectively. LIU is continuing to leverage the BIO-key PortalGuard IAM platform to strengthen its overall security posture to effectively respond to these evolving cyber threats while reducing costs and associated burden on its Information Technology team. A key point for LIU was PortalGuard's capability to support an integrated security system and allow the institution to utilize previous investments in other security solutions and deliver best-in-class technical capabilities, such as multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and self-service password reset (SSPR) to its user community.
"We are pleased to extend our relationship with LIU and offer an integrated security approach to protecting the institution," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "Many higher educational institutions must expand their security footprint without increasing net security costs. Institutions are looking for solutions that keep faculty, staff, and students safer while reducing business disruptions while simultaneously reducing the number of outside providers they need to juggle. We excel at delivering security solutions with a tangible return on investment for our customers."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate:
@BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors:
@BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Darksteel Technologies, a Managed Security Services Provider, Selects PortalGuard IAM as their Identity Security Platform for Key Customers
ORLANDO, Fla. and WALL, N.J., July 18, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced Darksteel Technologies, a Managed Security Service Provider (MSSP) based in Orlando, has selected BIO-key's PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform, to provide its customers with enterprise-grade identity authentication security for access to their desktops, critical business applications, and data.
As an MSSP, Darksteel Technologies (Darksteel) prides itself on delivering enterprise-class cybersecurity solutions to its small-to-medium sized customer base. Darksteel selected PortalGuard IDaaS for its unmatched variety of choices for workforce and customer multi-factor authentication (MFA), exclusive Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) options, single sign-on (SSO), and self-service password reset (SSPR) to support its customer's IAM strategies fully. PortalGuard IDaaS provides enterprise security capabilities that MSPs and MSSPs can use to improve operational effectiveness and their customer's security posture, all at an affordable price.
"We needed a solution that can fit many of our varied customer needs. We were impressed with BIO-key’s wide variety of multi-factor authentication (MFA) options for our customers to choose from to secure access to their desktops and applications," said Carlos Cisneros, Managing Director for Darksteel Technologies, "We are looking forward to a long, mutually beneficial partnership with BIO-key."
"We are pleased to add Darksteel Technologies to our community of MSPs and MSSPs who use our award-winning PortalGuard platform as their identity security solution for customers," said Fred Corsentino, CRO of BIO-key. "We were very impressed with the expertise and professionalism of Darksteel Technologies and feel confident that their customers are in good hands."
About Darksteel Technologies, LLC (www.darksteeltechnologies.com)
Darksteel Technologies is a complete technology solution provider. We are 100% committed to ensuring business owners have the most reliable and professionally managed IT security in Orlando. Our team of talented cybersecurity pros can help address those concerns that keep most people up at night. We handle all aspects of your IT security, including compliance, training, malware/crypto/ransomware protection, cloud security, DevSecOps, vulnerability management, professional services, architecture design, and other infosec requirements. We focus on your cybersecurity, so you don't have to.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key to Participate in CIO Forum Panel and Showcase its PortalGuard Identity and Access Management Platform at National Association of Counties Conference July 20-24
VP of Product Kimberly Biddings is an Expert Panelist in “A Crash Course in Marketing – Communicating About Cybersecurity Across Your County” during the CIO Forum on Weds.
AURORA, Colo. and WALL, N.J., July 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, announced today that it will sponsor and exhibit at the National Association of Counties (NACo) Annual Conference at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center in Aurora, Colorado, July 20-24th. BIO-key will meet with customer prospects and host Q&A sessions, and live demonstrations of their award-winning PortalGuard® IAM platform at Booth 507. BIO-key’s VP of Product, Kimberly Biddings, will be a featured expert panelist in “A Crash Course in Marketing – Communicating About Cybersecurity Across Your County” during NACo’s CIO Forum on Wednesday, July 20th.
Counties carry the significant responsibility of keeping resident personal information, priceless historical records, and critical infrastructure protected and secure in the event of a security breach. Over the past few years, counties have faced hundreds of cyberattacks that threaten their residents and critical infrastructure, including 911 call centers and water treatment plants. For another consecutive year this has elevated cybersecurity to a top priority for attendees at the conference, with multi-factor authentication (MFA) remaining at the top of the NACo Cyber Security Priorities and Best Practices List.
“For the second year in a row we are excited to sponsor and attend this event at a critical time when cybersecurity is top of mind for all counties,” said Fred Corsentino, Chief Revenue Officer of BIO-key. “Counties are an integral part of our national infrastructure and as an active partner to NACo member counties, we look forward to helping County IT leaders implement stronger IAM controls and to discussing cybersecurity measures that are essential to keeping their constituents safe from increasing cyberattacks.”
Attendees are invited to stop by booth 507 for live demonstrations of BIO-key’s PortalGuard solutions and to discuss their cybersecurity priorities, including:
Implementing multi-factor authentication, including biometrics;
Securing remote access;
Eliminating passwords with single sign-on;
Election security; and
Security policy configuration.
During demonstrations, attendees will see why PortalGuard stands out for its ability to help counties implement a complete IAM strategy. PortalGuard is the only IAM platform to offer Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) authentication as part of its multi-factor authentication capabilities, which uses a unique, centralized biometric identity to verify the person – not just a password, token, or device. The platform offers unmatched flexibility to support solution consolidation and aggregation under one set of centrally managed security policies and drive better user adoption. PortalGuard is affordable for counties of all sizes, offering all capabilities of the platform often at 50-60% below the competition, and is backed by a team of IAM experts, who are easy to reach and act as an extension of the county's IT team, thereby improving their cybersecurity posture quickly.
To learn more about BIO-key’s IAM solutions for counties, please visit the BIO-key website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key PortalGuard Wins 2022 Fortress Cyber Security Award in Authentication and Identity
WALL, N.J., June 08, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. ( BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today announced that its BIO-key PortalGuard® platform has won the 2022 Fortress Cyber Security Awards in the Authentication and Identity category. The industry awards program sought to identify and reward the world’s leading companies and products that are working to keep our data and electronic assets safe among a growing threat from hackers.
The global community of cyber security experts, technology developers and governments are taking proactive steps to thwart attacks and preventative measures to remain one-step ahead so responses can be quick and efficient. With evidence that multi-factor authentication has the ability to prevent as much as 80-90%, of cyberattacks one of the most essential steps organizations can take is to implement an authentication and identity strategy.
For multiple reasons, BIO-key PortalGuard® stands out for its ability to help organizations implement a complete IAM strategy. It is the only IAM platform to offer Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) authentication as part of its multi-factor authentication capabilities, which verifies the person – not just a password, token, or device. It offers unmatched flexibility to support solution consolidation and/or aggregation under one set of centrally managed security policies and drive better user adoption. PortalGuard is also competitively priced, offering all capabilities of the platform often at 50-60% below the competition, and is backed by a team of IAM experts, who are easy to reach and act as an extension of the customer's IT team, thereby improving their cybersecurity posture quickly.
“Traditional authentication methods, based on something the user knows or has, are being hacked,” says Michael DePasquale, BIO-key’s Chairman and CEO. “We are honored to have PortalGuard recognized for its ability to not only control access, but more importantly for its ability to offer true biometric authentication, a better way to authenticate, at a time when it is needed more than ever.”
The Fortress Cyber Security Awards program highlights, discusses, and rewards creative thinking, engineering, people, and projects that are taking on the growing cybercrime threat for the benefit of the global community.
“We are so proud to name BIO-key PortalGuard as a winner in the 2022 Fortress Cyber Security Awards program,” said Maria Jimenez, Chief Nominations Officer, Business Intelligence Group. “As our society continues to evolve and become more reliant on networks and data, companies like BIO-key are critical at providing the protection and trust consumers demand.”
BIO-key PortalGuard offers an unmatched variety of choices for multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), self-service password reset (SSPR), and Identity-Bound Biometrics and is well-suited for everyday use cases including remote workforces, third-party access, Customer IAM (CIAM), and passwordless workflows. For over 20 years, PortalGuard has been trusted by customers across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and government to reduce password-related help desk calls by up to 95%, eliminate passwords, secure remote access, prevent phishing attacks, meet cyber insurance requirements, and improve productivity for any IT team.
For information about BIO-key please visit the company website. For information about the annual Fortress Cyber Security Awards, please visit the awards website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
About Business Intelligence Group (www.bintelligence.com)
The Business Intelligence Group was founded with the mission of recognizing true talent and superior performance in the business world. Unlike other industry award programs, these programs are judged by business executives having experience and knowledge. The organization's proprietary and unique scoring system selectively measures performance across multiple business domains and rewards those companies whose achievements stand above those of their peers.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
1-212-924-9800
Wickw50 - I probably just assumed that BKYI was going to webcast the meeting because many other companies do. Guess that is what I get for assuming.
Gamco, I don’t recall any mention of a webcast.
Wickw50 - thank you. I had that information together with my control number from voting my proxy but I was thinking that the stockholders meeting would be webcast.
Gamco, Here’s the official invitation:
BIO-key International, Inc.
3349 Highway 138, Building A, Suite E
Wall, NJ 07719
Notice of Annual Meeting of Stockholders
Friday, June 24, 2022
To Our Stockholders:
The Annual Meeting of Stockholders of BIO-key International. Inc., a Delaware corporation (the “Company”), will be held on Friday, June 24, 2022, at 10:00 a.m., local time, at our offices at 3349 Highway 138, Building A, Suite E, Wall, NJ 07719, for the following purposes:
1.
To elect seven members of the board of directors to serve until the 2023 Annual Meeting of Stockholders and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified;
2.
To ratify the selection of Rotenberg Meril Solomon Bertiger & Guttilla, P.C. as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2022;
3.
To approve, on an advisory basis, our executive compensation; and
4.
To transact such other business as may properly come before the meeting or any continuation, adjournment or postponement thereof.
All stockholders are invited to attend the meeting. Holders of record of the Company’s common stock at the close of business on April 26, 2022, are entitled to notice of, and to vote at, the meeting.
By Order of the Board of Directors
sig.jpg
Michael W. DePasquale
Chairman of the Board of Directors
Wall, NJ
May 5, 2022
Real world authentication: Identity-bound biometrics in action
Jun 23, 2022, 1:48 pm EDT | Kimberly Biddings
Real world authentication: Identity-bound biometrics in action
By Kimberly Biddings, VP of Product, BIO-key International
Authentication for sensitive workplace data and materials has always faced challenges. Organizations need to balance convenience for their employees and security to keep a streamlined workplace running effectively. On top of this, not all workplaces are built alike. From banks needing to authorize high value transactions across multiple workstations to hospitals where medications are kept under lock and key, different industries require flexible and secure authentication methods to protect valuable resources and keep their organizations safe.
Traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods rely on a variety of different methods, each of which with its own set of challenges, but with Identity-bound Biometrics (IBB) companies are starting to find agile and secure authentication methods with practical uses across industries.
Where traditional MFA methods struggle
While MFA has a variety of different methods for authenticating employees across different actions and platforms, they are not all convenient or cost effective. Many rely upon one-time passwords (OTPs) that are sent to a smartphone. However, there are many environments in which using a smartphone is just not possible, or can even be dangerous. To overcome this difficulty, a couple of different methods have been introduced. Hardware tokens are one option, a physical piece of equipment that is carried around to grant a person access to their equipment. But how can an organization be sure who used the hardware token? Physical tokens can be lost, handed off, or forgotten. The identity of the user is not being authenticated, but rather the presence of a token which the organization believes to be in a single person’s possession. This act of faith on the organization’s part is huge, considering the implications in high stakes environments. It’s also inconvenient for users who must keep track of and carry around a token, resulting in a system wrought with potential flaws.
Biometrics are an excellent addition to complete any MFA strategy as they can be fast and convenient for the user and build trust for an organization who can be certain of the identity of a person accessing a system by confirming something they are — their biometric measurement. Biometrics also offer tremendous security and convenience benefits as they can’t be lost, stolen, or forgotten. However not all biometrics are created equal. Device-native biometrics are a method by which a user’s biometric data is enrolled and stored on each device they use and the device is ultimately what is being authenticated to the organization or relying party. Take Apple Touch ID for example where a fingerprint is enrolled on a phone, and then that phone is authenticated when accessing an organization’s system. But what happens when someone other than the intended user is able to enroll their own fingerprint on the device? The organization has no control over the enrollment or way of delineating between the device and the user.
Identity-bound biometric (IBB) methods avoid this problem. Used for authentication and identification, IBB centrally stores biometric data in an irreversible way that cannot be stolen or re-used, to create a unique biometric identity that’s used to verify the person taking action across locations and devices. To get a better idea of how this flexibility benefits both organizations and users, let’s look at a few real-world examples.
The traveling investment advisor
Many banks have traveling investment consultants who work at multiple locations in a region, providing high quality investment advice directly to customers. In order to effectively perform their position, the consultant needs to quickly access new systems in each location, while the organization needs to trust that only the consultant has access to client banking information and accounts. By deploying Identity-Bound Biometrics with fingerprint scanners at each desktop and shared workstation the consultant can travel to different branches, even ones they have never been to before and have the same easy authentication experience of simply scanning their fingerprint. The bank can easily audit the locations where the consultant logs in and have confidence that only the authorized consultant is gaining access to customer data.
Let’s look into another place where this technology has been applied successfully.
Clinicians dispensing controlled substances
In order to secure controlled substances, such as morphine and other pain medication, hospitals long ago moved these drugs to locked cabinets. The original approach to restricting and securing access to these cabinets was to provide clinicians with keys and ask them to document who opened the cabinet and for which patient. Unfortunately in many hospitals, the predictable happened — clinicians with keys would open the cabinet without signing their name, either maliciously or because they were in a hurry. This meant that if medication went missing, there was no recourse for the hospital to figure out who was responsible. Traditional keys face many of the same challenges as other authentication methods that rely on something you have, such as proximity badges and hardware tokens — they can be stolen, lost, shared, and ultimately don’t identify the presence of an authorized person.
With Identity-Bound Biometrics doctors and nurses don’t need to carry around a key, badge, or token. With the touch of a finger to the scanner on the cabinet they can gain access and the organization can know who they are. From there the electronic lock on the cabinet can require information like dosage and patient name before opening. As clinicians look to best care for their patients and hospitals look to comply with regulations everyone can rest assured that only authorized users have access to the cabinet, it’s easy to get medications quickly for patients, and that there is a full audit trail should a discrepancy arise. This builds trust across the hospital and creates a secure environment for doctors to achieve the best possible patient outcomes.
Fitness center — Making it easier to get your sweat on
It isn’t just employers and employees that benefit from IBB either. Its convenience is perfect for customers as well. For example, when a person enrolls at a large chain of gyms they are commonly given a fob or membership card to enter the building. As previously discussed these can be lost, stolen, or washed with your gym clothes resulting in less convenience for the customer and greater overhead for the gym who have to produce cards or fobs both initially and as replacements. Furthermore these gyms often have many locations and commonly multiple entrances. So, while biometrics solve the problem of lost keys, only IBB allows a client to enroll their biometric measurement, such as their fingerprint, once at the gym when they sign up and then they can just scan their finger to grant them access to any of that gym’s locations.
IBB harnesses the security and convenience of using biometrics coupled with the flexibility and agility of centralized enrollment. From a gym to a bank to a hospital, IBB provides these benefits across industries and use cases. No matter the situation, it should be a key component of any complete MFA strategy.
About the author
Kimberly Biddings is VP of Product at BIO-key International.
Where can I fine a link to join the stockholders meeting?
Oldman285, If I find the transcript I’ll post it. eom
Wick... are you going to give us the highlights of mtg today...
BIO-key’s Cloud-Hosted PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service Platform Named “Identity Management Solution of the Year” by Research Firm RemoteTech Breakthrough
WALL, N.J., June 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today announced its PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform has won the “Identity Management Solution of the Year” award in the 2022 RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards conducted by RemoteTech Breakthrough, for the second consecutive year. This acknowledgement adds to a growing list of industry awards the platform has earned. RemoteTech Breakthrough is a leading independent market intelligence organization that evaluates and recognizes standout technology companies, products, and services empowering remote work and distributed teams around the globe.
The mission of the annual RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards program is to conduct the industry’s most comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the top technology companies, solutions, and products in the remote technology industry today. This year’s program attracted more than 1,700 nominations from over 15 different countries.
In the wake of the pandemic, many organizations plan to maintain a fully remote or hybrid work environment, however they struggle to secure remote access and know exactly who is gaining access to their systems, applications, and data.
“Many of the multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods organizations are using to authenticate remote employees, suppliers, and customers are based on something the user knows, such as a password, or something the user has, such as their phone. These approaches leave the door wide open for common authentication hacks where credentials are shared, stolen, forgotten, or lost,” said Bryan Vaughn, Managing Director of RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards. “We selected PortalGuard as ‘Identity Management Solution of the Year’ for how easily it helps customers secure access for both the workforce and customers while also giving organizations peace of mind that they know who is gaining access regardless of their location.”
When securing remote access for employees, supply chain, and customers, positively identifying the individual with certainty during the authentication process is essential. BIO-key PortalGuard IDaaS provides a hosted, unified IAM platform that offers the widest range of options for single sign-on, self-service password reset, and multi-factor authentication, with BIO-key’s proprietary offering of Identity-Bound Biometrics that utilize a centralized unique biometric identity to verify a person anywhere. Customers using PortalGuard’s IBB authentication methods, including fingerprint scanning and palm scanning via BIO-key's MFA mobile app, MobileAuth™, can eliminate the inconvenience, security risks, and costs of traditional authentication methods to effectively secure remote access.
“We are thrilled and honored to again be recognized by RemoteTech Breakthrough for our innovations and unique ability to secure remote access,” said Michael DePasquale, Chairman and CEO of BIO-key International. “The increase in global demand for remote access has amplified the shortcomings of many IAM solutions unable to go beyond passwords and devices to verify the person behind every authentication. In contrast, PortalGuard offers customers the flexibility to utilize a range of factors, including Identity-Bound Biometrics, to secure access for all their users and address their core IAM requirements.”
For over 20 years, PortalGuard has been trusted by customers across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and government, to secure remote access, reduce password-related help desk calls by up to 95%, eliminate passwords, prevent phishing attacks, meet cyber insurance requirements, and improve productivity for the IT team.
To learn more about BIO-key PortalGuard IDaaS please visit BIO-key's website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
About RemoteTech Breakthrough
Part of Tech Breakthrough, a leading market intelligence and recognition platform for global technology innovation and leadership, the RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards program is devoted to honoring excellence in technologies, services, companies, and products that empower remote work and distributed teams around the globe. The RemoteTech Breakthrough Awards program provides a forum for public recognition around the achievements of technology companies and solutions in categories including messaging & communication, project management, virtual events, team collaboration, virtual offices, collaborative design and more. For more information visit RemoteTechBreakthrough.com.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Well, yes it would be, maybe several in a row... !!15 yrs ago I started with 450k shares, after the reverse splits 1/8 and other thet have wittledme down,... but still holding tight..
BIO-key Showcases Biometric Cybersecurity Solutions at MSP Expo Florida (Booth 536) to Support its Growing Distribution Base of Managed Service Providers
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. and WALL, N.J., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will showcase its solutions in Booth #536 at MSP EXPO June 21-24, 2022 at the Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Produced by TMC, MSP EXPO is the premier conference and networking summit for Managed Service Providers (MSPs), with expanded reach via its collocation with ITEXPO. BIO-key looks to both support and expand its growing base of Managed Service Providers (MSPs) and Managed Security Service Providers (MSSPs), highlighting the value and capabilities of its differentiated cybersecurity solutions and sharing strategies with channel partners on how to grow their businesses with BIO-key solutions.
BIO-key welcomes the opportunity to extend its Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) Program within the global MSP community and to develop new revenue opportunities for BIO-key and its partners. Attendees are invited to stop by booth #536 to learn how BIO-key and their award-winning PortalGuard IAM platform can:
Build a strong recurring revenue stream for their business;
Differentiate their cybersecurity portfolio with Identity-Bound Biometrics;
Offer an IAM solution that beats the competition in both features and price;
Build profitable customer relationships; and
Help them become a trusted cybersecurity advisor.
For more than 20 years, the conference has brought together MSP business owners and technology specialists to discuss how to drive more recurring revenue, increase the valuation of their company, grow their network, deliver better customer service, and evaluate today’s most sought-after technologies.
“We’re seeing more MSPs and a new cohort of MSSPs interested in offering cybersecurity solutions which are a growing customer priority in today’s environment,” said Fred Corsentino, Chief Revenue Officer, BIO-key. “Increases in cyberattacks, cyber insurers requiring multi-factor authentication, the desire to eliminate passwords and providing friction-less access are just some of the reasons customers have a strong interest in our solutions. We look forward to connecting with the global MSP community at this event to discuss how we can help them solve these challenges for their customers and accelerate the grow of their cybersecurity business.”
BIO-key PortalGuard offers an unmatched variety of multi-factor authentication (MFA) choices, single sign-on (SSO), self-service password reset (SSPR), and Identity-Bound Biometrics. PortalGuard is well-suited for everyday use cases including remote workforces, third-party access, Customer IAM (CIAM), and passwordless workflows. For over 20 years, PortalGuard has been trusted by customers across education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, government, and other sectors to reduce password-related help desk calls by up to 95%, eliminate passwords, secure remote access, prevent phishing attacks, meet cyber insurance requirements, and improve productivity for the IT team.
For information about BIO-key and its CAP Program please visit the company website. For information about MSP Expo, please visit the conference website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
About TMC (www.tmcnet.com)
Through education, industry news, live events such as ITEXPO and social influence, global buyers rely on TMC's content-driven marketplaces to make purchase decisions and navigate markets. As a result, leading technology vendors turn to TMC for unparalleled branding, thought leadership and lead generation opportunities. Our in-person and online events deliver unmatched visibility and sales prospects for all participants. Through our custom lead generation programs, we provide clients with an ongoing stream of leads that turn into sales opportunities and build databases. Additionally, we bolster brand reputations with the millions of impressions from display advertising on our news sites and newsletters. Making TMC a 360-degree marketing solution, we offer comprehensive event and road show management services and custom content creation with expertly ghost-crafted blogs, press releases, articles and marketing collateral to help with SEO, branding, and overall marketing efforts. For more information about TMC and to learn how we can help you reach your marketing goals, please visit www.tmcnet.com and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, @tmcnet.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
1-212-924-9800
Media and Analyst Contact:
Michelle Connolly
Marketing Manager
203.852.6800 ext.170
rconnolly@tmcnet.com
BIO-key International Joins the AWS Partner Network
Empowering customers to realize the benefits of managing identity in the cloud
WALL, N.J., June 21, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, announced today that it has joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network (APN), a global community of partners who leverage AWS to build solutions and services for customers. Together the companies are helping customers move their IAM strategies to the cloud for greater availability, scalability, resiliency, and reduced overhead.
With the continued growth of cloud-based services and remote access becoming the norm, organizations need to rethink how they manage digital identities. The reasons for managing identity services on-premises are becoming less relevant as many organizations drive toward Zero Trust or perimeter-less security principles. Further, the IT resources and skills required to manage on-premises solutions are limited, with many organizations looking to outsource all access management to managed services providers (MSPs) whenever possible.
As part of the APN, BIO-key now has access to the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for companies that provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. The program is designed to help ISV Partners like BIO-key drive new business and accelerate sales cycles with the AWS Sales organization by connecting participating independent software vendors (ISVs) with the AWS Sales organization. The AWS ISV Accelerate Program will provide BIO-key co-sell support and benefits to connect with AWS field sellers globally, who service millions of active AWS customers. Co-selling provides better customer outcomes and assures mutual commitment from AWS and AWS partners like BIO-key.
Built on AWS, using BIO-key PortalGuard Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) provides an added layer of access management to the already secure, extensive and reliable cloud. Customers and MSPs will be empowered to manage security policies centrally while removing the complexity of storing digital identities on-premises.
“Cloud applications became ubiquitous, and scalability continues to be a critical requirement as our college matures and the number of identities we need to manage grows,” said Andy Specht, Director of Information Technology Services at Allan Hancock College, one of the 50+ Foundation of California Community Colleges (FCCC) BIO-key customer institutions. “The migration from PortalGuard on-premises to PortalGuard IDaaS on AWS gave us significant opportunities to achieve efficiencies in manual operations, infrastructure, and maintenance costs, while freeing up our IT resources to focus on more valuable strategic work.”
Orange Bank & Trust Company, another BIO-key customer, selected PortalGuard IDaaS to support the bank’s digital transformation and cloud adoption. “We’ve been focused on moving our critical systems to the cloud,” said Kathy Pinto, First Vice President at Orange Bank & Trust Company. “Using PortalGuard on AWS not only helped us simplify our IT infrastructure, reduce costs, and improve operational efficiency but it also gives us the flexibility to be able to scale and easily secure access to new apps, services, and solutions as our digital banking strategy evolves.”
“Public sector organizations need secure, scalable and reliable identity verification,” said Jeff Kratz, General Manager, Worldwide Public Sector Partners, AWS. “As part of the Amazon Partner Network, BIO-key will help customers move identity management to the cloud with greater predictability, simplicity and affordability.”
“We are pleased to expand our ongoing relationship with AWS through the AWS Partner Network,” said Mark Cochran, President of PortalGuard, BIO-key. “As IAM remains the doorway to a significant number of applications, any outages can create a significant impact from a business perspective. Becoming an AWS ISV Partner furthers our commitment to providing flexible, easy-to-manage solutions that help our customers and partners realize the “utilitylike” availability, scalability, resiliency, and cost reduction benefits of managing identity in the AWS Cloud.”
As an award-winning IAM platform, PortalGuard IDaaS offers a wide variety of choices for multi-factor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), self-service password reset (SSPR), and Identity-Bound Biometric authentication options that provide the highest level of integrity and is well-suited for everyday use cases including remote workforces, third-party access, Customer IAM (CIAM), and passwordless workflows. For over 20 years, PortalGuard has been trusted by customers across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and government, to reduce password-related help desk calls by up to 95%, eliminate passwords, secure remote access, prevent phishing attacks, meet cyber insurance requirements, and improve productivity for the IT team.
To learn more about BIO-key, AWS, and managing identity in the cloud, please visit the BIO-key website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Erin Knapp
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Oldman285, That would be special. eom
Maybe, we can get a 2/1 split out of this next stockholders mtg???
Oldman285, Good advice, thanks. eom
Hey Guys, I had three awards, burned two starting a camp fire in Glacier National Park, I'll burn the third if nothing happens by July 1, 2022 .....??
CCDDAY, Too funny! eom
I just bought a new box of cereal this morning…. So who knows, maybe at the bottom of this one.
CCDDAY, You don’t have one? Lol
What?…. The Coveted InfoSec Award? Is this only given to companies that routinely underperform, crush shareholder stock value and are overseen by a seemingly uninterested and undemanding Board of Directors or can just any company ask for one?
BIO-key Named Winner of the Coveted Global InfoSec Award During RSA Conference 2022
BIO-key Wins “Publisher's Choice Multi-factor Authentication” in 9th Annual Global InfoSec Awards
WALL, N.J., June 06, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) and large scale identity solutions, is proud to announce it has won the Publisher's Choice for Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) Award from Cyber Defense Magazine (CDM), the cybersecurity industry's leading electronic information security magazine.
Each year the awards highlight the next generation of cyber defense products and services during the annual RSA Conference, the world’s leading cybersecurity event. The judges are certified security professionals who conduct independent reviews of each of the companies competing. The awards feature innovative and valuable solutions, like BIO-key’s Identity-Bound Biometrics, to demonstrate the cutting edge in security technology for companies looking to strengthen their cyber defenses.
Michael DePasquale, BIO-key Chairman and CEO, commented on the recognition, “It is with great pride that we accept one of the most prestigious cybersecurity awards in the world from Cyber Defense Magazine, during their 10th anniversary as an independent cybersecurity news and information provider. We knew the competition would be tough and with top judges who are leading infosec experts from around the globe, we couldn’t be more pleased. This endorsement of our biometric-based access technology as a powerful tool for MFA will extend our reach and empower us to continue making the digital world more secure.”
“BIO-key embodies three major features we judges look for to become winners: understanding tomorrow’s threats, today, providing a cost-effective solution, and innovating in unexpected ways that can help mitigate cyber risk and get one step ahead of the next breach,” said Gary S. Miliefsky, Publisher of Cyber Defense Magazine.
Please join us today virtually at the RSA Conference 2022 by visiting the event website here: https://www.rsaconference.com/usa.
To share our red carpet experience and learn more about the award and the conference, follow BIO-key on social media channels listed below and visit the BIO-key website at https://www.bio-key.com/. To learn more about BIO-key’s Identity-bound Biometric technology visit our website here.
To see a full list of this year’s recipients, visit http://www.cyberdefenseawards.com/
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including PortalGuard that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions as well as customized enterprise and cloud solutions.
About CDM InfoSec Awards
This is Cyber Defense Magazine’s ninth year of honoring global InfoSec innovators. Our submission requirements are for any startup, early stage, later stage or public companies in the INFORMATION SECURITY (INFOSEC) space who believe they have a unique and compelling value proposition for their product or service. Learn more at www.cyberdefenseawards.com
About the judging
The judges are CISSP, FMDHS, CEH, certified security professionals who voted based on their independent review of the company submitted materials on the website of each submission including but not limited to data sheets, white papers, product literature and other market variables. CDM has a flexible philosophy to find more innovative players with new and unique technologies, than the one with the most customers or money in the bank. CDM is always asking “What’s Next?” so we are looking for Next Generation InfoSec Solutions.
About Cyber Defense Magazine
With over 5 million monthly readers and growing, and thousands of pages of searchable online infosec content, Cyber Defense Magazine is the premier source of IT Security information for B2B and B2G with our sister magazine Cyber Security Magazine for B2C. We are managed and published by and for ethical, honest, passionate information security professionals. Our mission is to share cutting-edge knowledge, real-world stories and awards on the best ideas, products and services in the information technology industry. We deliver electronic magazines every month online for free, and special editions exclusively for the RSA Conferences. CDM is a proud member of the Cyber Defense Media Group. Learn more about CDM at https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com and visit https://www.cyberdefensetv.com and https://www.cyberdefenseradio.com to see and hear some of the most informative interviews of many of these winning company executives. Join a webinar at https://www.cyberdefensewebinars.com and realize that infosec knowledge is power.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-980
I’m with you!!!
You asked a simple question and the man gave you an honest (and accurate answer based on long shareholder experience/ history). Many of us shareholders who have been around a long time can attest to same. To state the obvious doesn’t mean someone is part of an active FUD campaign. No need to make it personal.
Will see this year if it is only as you say or your part of the FUD campaign ??
Oldman285, This company has basically been a Mickey D admiration organization. The perfect example of how to be SEC compliant and not return value to the shareholders.
Oldman285, Until Mickey D retires, and some new, young visionary comes along and adds multiple products to this corporation, the shareholders can expect nothing but devaluation. JMHO (btw, I miss “Babs on the company podcasts)
Wicked, do you ever think BKYI will split 2/1 or payout a dividend???
Identity and Access Management Cyber-Security Provider BIO-key’s Q1 Revenue Improved to $1.9M, Driven by 205% Increase in Software License Fees; Investor Call Today at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., May 16, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) and large-scale identity solutions, today reported results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2022 (Q1’22). BIO-key is hosting a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. ET (details below) to review its results and outlook.
BIO-key’s revenue improved 3% to $1.94M in Q1’22 from $1.89M in Q1’21 and 108% from $935K in Q4 2021 driven by a $981,000 increase in software license fees year over year. BIO-key is focused on growing its base of annual recurring software license fees which provide more predictable revenue trends and higher margins than its more episodic hardware revenues.
Recent Highlights:
Expanding PortalGuard Penetration with Local Government Customers, including New Deployments in Missouri, New Mexico, New York, South Dakota and Texas counties and municipalities.
March 8th acquisition of Swivel Secure Europe, an IAM solutions provider in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) that generated approximately $3.1M in revenue and $578K in operating income in 2021. contributed $368K of revenue during the remainder of March, and substantially expands BIO-key’s global customer base, geographic reach, and long term growth potential.
Added New Enterprise Customers and Channel Alliance Program partners
Initial Hardware Deployments for Nigeria’s National Identity Management Commission’s National ID Enrollment Program in partnership with Sterling Bank Nigeria’s Specta online lending platform - BIO-key’s Pocket10 device for mobile biometric enrollments for agent banking is being deployed to support increased adoption and use of the National Identity Number and mobile banking and payments across the country.
BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale commented, “As anticipated, we are off to a solid start in Q1’22, with software license sales increasing 205% year-over-year and 168% over Q4’21. This strong performance reflects growing momentum in our Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) base from software licenses, which is a core focus and value driver for our business. While hardware remains an important component and differentiator in our business, its episodic nature can create some variability in our quarterly operating performance. Our Q1’22 performance included just 22 days of operating results from our Swivel Secure Europe operations acquired in March.
“Looking forward, we see an expanding worldwide opportunity to grow our software license revenue base, driven by the compelling security, scalability, ease of use and deployment, and customer value proposition of our PortalGuard IAM platform, along with an expanding array of security solutions. Customers are increasingly recognizing PortalGuard’s, flexibility and differentiated multi-factor authentication capabilities, with support for sixteen different factors including BIO-key’s industry-leading Identity Bound Biometric capabilities.
“PortalGuard continues to gain momentum in the higher education and municipal government verticals and with enterprises as a high-value, easy-to-deploy solution for hybrid access needs. The industry continues to recognize BIO-key as we recently earned four recent 2022 Cybersecurity Excellence Awards and a Security Today magazine 2022 Govies Government Security Award for PortalGuard, in the User Authentication/ Identification/Credentialing and Management category.
Outlook
“There is a clear and growing global need for enterprises of all kinds to protect their data and systems with stronger cybersecurity solutions. BIO-key has built a strong base of products, services and partnerships to address this substantial opportunity. Given the growing momentum in our business, complemented with the addition of Swivel Secure Europe and further progress advancing our opportunities in Africa, we remain confident in achieving our full-year 2022 revenue guidance of $10-13M. Approximately 70% of the lower end of this guidance range relates to contracted recurring software license revenue.
“Our revenue guidance represents growth of more than 100% over 2021, benefitting from continued growth in software license revenue, along with hardware and services revenue contributions that are generally tied to specific projects. Our positive outlook is supported by our strong capital position, talented global management and product development teams, and expanded global sales, marketing and channel partner footprint. Further, we believe BIO-key is positioned to achieve break-even operations starting at the lower end of this range, subject to our mix of hardware and higher-margin software revenue.”
Financial Results
Q1’22 revenue increased 3% to $1.94M from $1.89M in Q1’21, driven by a 205% increase in software license fees and a modest increase in services revenue, which more than offset a decline in hardware revenue. The year-ago period included $680,000 in hardware revenue related to the initiation of product shipments for one of the Company’s large scale ID projects in Nigeria.
Gross profit grew to $1.6M in Q1’22 from $1.1M in Q1’21, due primarily to the increase of higher-margin license fee revenue as a percentage of total revenue in the current-year period.
Total operating expenses increased to $2.6M in Q1’22 from $2.0M in Q1’21, reflecting a $0.4M increase in research, development and engineering expense related to our recently announced MobileAuth and IDaaS solutions and a $0.3M increase in selling, general and administrative expense reflecting acquisition expenses associated with Swivel Secure Europe.
BIO-key reported an operating loss of $1.0M in Q1’22 vs. $0.8M in Q1’21, as the Company’s increase in gross profit was more than offset by higher operating expenses intended to support long term growth. BIO-key reported a Q1’22 net loss available to common stockholders of $1.0M, or $0.12 per share, compared to a Q1’21 net loss of $0.9M, or $0.11 per share. Weighted average basic shares outstanding were approximately 7.9M in Q1’22 and 7.8M in Q1’21.
Financial Strength
BIO-key ended the first quarter with working capital of $10.1M, including $5.8M of cash and cash equivalents and $5.0M in inventory, and a book value of $15.3M.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Today, Monday, May 16th at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Investor Webcast & Replay – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 3884798
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including PortalGuard that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions as well as customized enterprise and cloud solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology and identity access management industries; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; our ability to execute and deliver on contracts in Africa; our ability to expand into Asia, Africa and other foreign markets; our ability to integrate the operations and personnel of PistolStar and Swivel Secure into our business; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; the duration and extent of continued hostilities in Ukraine and its impact on our European customers, delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact Investor Contact
Erin Knapp William Jones, David Collins
Matter Communications Catalyst IR
BIO-key@matternow.com BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
914-260-3158 212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
March 31,
2022 December 31,
2021
(Unaudited)
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 5,846,798 $ 7,754,046
Accounts receivable, net 2,668,147 970,626
Due from factor 51,850 49,500
Note receivable, net of allowance 82,000 82,000
Inventory 4,956,472 4,940,660
Prepaid expenses and other 363,209 216,041
Total current assets 13,954,691 14,012,873
Resalable software license rights 46,247 48,752
Investment – debt security, net 452,821 452,821
Equipment and leasehold improvements, net 134,929 69,168
Capitalized contract costs, net 279,789 249,012
Deposits and other assets 8,712 8,712
Note receivable, net of allowance 110,000 113,000
Operating lease right-of-use assets 202,513 254,100
Intangible assets, net 2,768,067 1,298,077
Goodwill 1,648,481 1,262,526
Total non-current assets 5,651,559 3,756,168
TOTAL ASSETS $ 19,606,250 $ 17,769,041
LIABILITIES
Accounts payable $ 1,084,452 $ 427,772
Accrued liabilities 896,702 828,997
Government loan – Swivel 580,992 -
Deferred revenue - current 798,830 565,355
Operating lease liabilities, current portion 156,730 177,188
Total current liabilities 3,517,706 1,999,312
Deferred revenue – long term 54,699 67,300
Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 54,710 86,974
Total non-current liabilities 109,409 154,274
TOTAL LIABILITIES 3,627,115 2,153,586
Commitments and Contingencies
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 8,406,451 and 7,853,759 of $.0001 par value at March 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021, respectively 841 786
Additional paid-in capital 121,509,367 120,190,139
Accumulated other comprehensive gain 43,800
Accumulated deficit (105,574,873 ) (104,575,470 )
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 15,979,135 15,615,455
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY $ 19,606,250 $ 17,769,041
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Unaudited)
Three months ended
March 31,
2022 2021
Revenues
Services $ 395,804 $ 380,022
License fees 1,460,183 478,958
Hardware 85,184 1,029,658
Total revenues 1,941,171 1,888,638
Costs and other expenses
Cost of services 210,913 175,944
Cost of license fees 73,230 38,969
Cost of hardware 53,298 551,722
Total costs and other expenses 337,441 766,635
Gross Profit 1,603,730 1,122,003
Operating expenses
Selling, general and administrative 1,797,998 1,516,398
Research, development and engineering 805,266 441,651
Total operating expenses 2,603,264 1,958,049
Operating loss (999,534 ) (836,046 )
Other income (expense)
Interest income 131 2,615
Interest expense - (18,000 )
Total other income (expense) 131 (15,385 )
Net loss $ (999,403 ) $ (851,431 )
Comprehensive loss:
Net loss $ (999,403 ) $ (851,431 )
Other comprehensive gain 43,800 -
Comprehensive loss $ (955,603 ) $ (851,431 )
Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share $ (0.12 ) $ (0.11 )
Weighted Average Shares Outstanding:
Basic and Diluted 7,885,008 7,773,688
BIO-key, Provider of Identity & Access Management Cybersecurity Solutions, Hosts Q1 Investor Call Monday, May 16th at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., May 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) and large-scale identity solutions, will review its first quarter results in a conference call Monday, May 16, 2022 at 10 a.m. ET. Results will be released pre-market that morning. Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO; Cecilia Welch, CFO; and Kimberly Johnson, VP of Product will participate on the call.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Monday, May 16th at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Investor Webcast & Replay – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 3884798
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including PortalGuard that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions as well as customized enterprise and cloud solutions.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact Investor Contact
Erin Knapp William Jones, David Collins
Matter Communications Catalyst IR
BIO-key@matternow.com BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
914-260-3158 212-924-9800
YYK Enterprises Selects PortalGuard IAM Platform to Secure Data Access and Provide Passwordless Authentication
NATIONAL CITY, Calif. and WALL, N.J., May 09, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced YYK Enterprises Operations, LLC (YYK), a provider of structural and mechanical repair/preservation services to the military and commercial maritime industries, has selected BIO-key's PortalGuard® IAM platform, including WEB-key biometric authentication, to provide its workforce with strong authentication security to mission-critical applications and data.
YYK sought a new IAM solution to improve authentication security and enhanced support of US Government security requirements for data and its encryption (e.g., NIST, FIPS). In addition to supporting these vital authentication security requirements, YYK needed a solution to improve user satisfaction by eliminating password fatigue and strengthening security with multi-factor authentication (MFA) options. With the PortalGuard IAM platform with WEB-key, YYK can now use biometric authentication to confirm the user's true identity, not just the hardware device they are using, without injecting a more cumbersome or time-intensive MFA process, providing a passwordless login experience. Another win for the YYK team was to sole-source the complete solution from BIO-key, including using PIV-Pro fingerprint readers, which are BIO-key's highly accurate FIPS 201 compliant scanner, providing the best in class biometric fingerprint authentication for its customers.
"Based on our search for an enterprise IAM solution that provided secure passwordless authentication and met US Government compliance requirements, we can validate the significant value provided by the PortalGuard IAM platform and biometric capabilities over other vendor solutions," said William Elks, IT Manager, YYK Enterprises. "We are looking forward to a long, mutually beneficial partnership with BIO-key."
"We are pleased to add YYK to our community of customers that support both military and commercial customers," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key - PortalGuard. "Our team has extensive experience enabling government agencies and their contractor partners to meet the challenges of an evolving threat landscape while cost-effectively securing their operations."
About YYK Enterprises Operations, LLC (www.yykenterprises.com)
Founded in 1980, YYK Enterprises quickly built a reputation with the military and commercial sector as one of the best and the most dependable in this business in the San Diego Area. YYK has retained its competitiveness and quality standard while meeting ever-changing industry demand. YYK prides itself in its Quality Control, and its inspection system is designed to meet the requirements of 009-32. YYK has enjoyed success in favorably impressing clients with quality work and looks forward to continuing its record of service to the maritime industry.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2020 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Stockholders meeting: https://sec.report/Document/0001437749-22-011143/
BIO-key MobileAuth™ Innovation Continues to Advance the Adoption of Identity-Bound Biometrics and Remove the Need for Multiple Authentication Solutions
New biometric and push token authentication options support a wider range of use cases and address the insufficiencies of traditional authentication
WALL, N.J., May 03, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today announced upgrades to BIO-key MobileAuth™, the only multi-factor authentication (MFA) mobile app that integrates the power of IBB across multiple authentication modalities, allowing customers to build a more complete MFA strategy. These methods include palm scanning (PalmPositive™) and facial recognition (FacePositive™). In addition to the newest IBB-powered modalities, MobileAuth supports device-based biometric authentication methods including Apple Face ID, Touch ID, and Android Biometrics, as well as support for push token authentication. These enhancements make biometrics even easier for customers to deploy across a wider set of use cases and further consolidate their authentication and security solutions.
BIO-key believes it is essential to put people at the center of security solutions, as the only constant in our rapidly evolving world. BIO-key MobileAuth™ is the only MFA mobile app that can safeguard access to critical data with authentication that verifies the user and offers multiple, easy-to-use authentication methods for users to choose from while reducing operational costs for IT departments. By integrating IBB into the mobile app’s authentication methods, security risks, inconvenience, high costs and user friction of traditional authentication methods are eliminated.
While traditional multi-factor authentication (MFA) approaches do provide an extra layer of security, recent cybersecurity attacks and user adoption challenges have proven that these methods are not enough. Both CISA and the FBI warn that traditional MFA strategies based on ‘what you know’ and ‘what you have’, like passwords and one-time passwords (OTP) sent via SMS, remain vulnerable to social engineering and damaging cyberattacks, such as account takeovers and credential handovers. Hardware tokens present other challenges, including high lifecycle costs, lost token churn, and complicated user experiences. Moreover, authentication that is not enterprise-controlled leaves room for end-users to share credentials or enroll additional users to their devices without consent.
“The current authentication process is not frictionless, and with cybercrime on a steady rise, it’s more important than ever to have a strong, easy-to-use and affordable multi-factor authentication strategy in place," said Michael DePasquale, BIO-key’s Chairman and CEO. “We’re at a critical point in the evolution of authentication where stronger solutions must include authentication that’s based on ‘who you are’. We’re extremely proud to address this need by empowering our customers to take full advantage of Identity-Bound Biometrics from the convenience of any mobile device using MobileAuth.”
MobileAuth’s enhanced Identity-Bound Biometric capabilities uniquely offer the highest levels of:
Risk Prevention: access to critical data and applications is safeguarded by authenticating the person taking the action — not just the device. Stronger encryption and session management provide increased security levels in tandem with IBB credentials that cannot be forgotten, shared, exchanged, stolen, or forged.
Flexibility: employees, customers, and suppliers can choose from multiple, easy-to-use authentication methods — including IBB authentication methods using facial recognition and palm scanning, local biometrics, and push tokens — to provide a convenient and consistent user experience.
Cost Efficiency: with a lower total cost of ownership compared to traditional authentication methods, MobileAuth is ideal for large-scale deployments. No additional hardware is necessary, as MobileAuth can be used on any camera-equipped mobile device. IT department overhead is drastically reduced by eliminating costs and resources required to support traditional authentication methods.
MobileAuth is perfectly suited for common use cases including remote workforces, third-party access, and passwordless workflows. A key use case for MobileAuth is Customer Identity and Access Management (CIAM). CIAM is focused on improving customer registration and login experiences, reducing the risk of account takeover, and being able to scale to manage millions of customer identities. MobileAuth quickly scales to secure customer access with no additional hardware required, an easy self-registration process, and passwordless options, making it ideal for organizations to deliver a frictionless, secure experience.
A Media Snippet accompanying this announcement is available by clicking on the image or link below:
BIO-key MobileAuth™ Innovation Continues to Advance the Adoption of Identity-Bound Biometrics: New biometric and push token authentication options support a wider range of use cases and address the insufficiencies of traditional authentication
MobileAuth provides the unique combination of convenience, security, and integrity — perfect for securing all access. BIO-key MobileAuth is available for iOS and Android, requiring an active BIO-key PortalGuard® IDaaS account and will be available and shipping in the third quarter.
To learn more about the BIO-key MobileAuth upgrades and Identity-Bound Biometrics, please visit the BIO-key website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key to Showcase Identity-Bound Biometric Solutions and Higher Education Expertise at EDUCAUSE Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference 2022
WALL, N.J., April 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will exhibit at the EDUCAUSE Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference, to be held in-person in Baltimore, Maryland May 3-5, and as an online event May 11-12. BIO-key will have a vendor corporate display at the conference where higher education IT security professionals can discuss the latest cyber threats and why IBB should be part of any complete multi-factor authentication (MFA) strategy. BIO-key will be available for Q&A sessions and live demonstrations of their award-winning PortalGuard®platform and MobileAuth™ MFA mobile app.
In addition to in-person events, BIO-key will also participate in the online portion of the event on May 12. Kimberly Biddings, VP of Product at BIO-key, will join Ron Horn, Associate Vice President, and CIO of Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in the session, “We’ve Had a Ransomware Attack, Now What?”. The session will focus on GTCC’s experience surviving a ransomware attack in 2020, including how Horn’s team detected the attack, their response and six-month road to recovery.
The education sector has been a key target for cyberattacks, such as ransomware attacks that continue to grow in frequency and ferocity. Many institutions struggle to defend against surging cyberattacks, as the shift to remote and online learning present cybercriminals with new opportunities to attack. As a premiere cybersecurity event, the EDUCASUE conference will focus on cybersecurity topics pertinent to the higher education sector, including awareness and education, governance, risk and compliance for privacy and cybersecurity, operations, and career development.
As experts in higher education, with solutions that are trusted by more than 200 institutions, BIO-key welcomes the opportunity to meet with higher education IT security professionals about improving their cybersecurity strategies, while working within the boundaries of their limited resources. Attendees are invited to stop by BIO-key’s corporate display for live demonstrations and to discuss their top priorities.
“With heightened risk for cyberattacks on higher education organizations, it’s essential that they have effective cybersecurity measures in place, namely multi-factor authentication,” said Kimberly Biddings, VP of Product, BIO-key. “After years of helping our customers implement traditional MFA, we’re looking forward to discussing how institutions can leverage Identity-Bound Biometrics to provide authentication options that won’t fall victim to common authentication hacks and that faculty, staff and students can easily adopt.”
During the demonstrations, attendees will see BIO-key's award-winning PortalGuard platform with its end-to-end flexibility. The PortalGuard platform is a complete IAM solution that offers single sign-on (SSO), self-service password reset (SSPR), multi-factor authentication (MFA), and BIO-key's unique Identity-Bound Biometric solutions, available on-premises or in the cloud. BIO-key will also demonstrate MobileAuth, the only multi-factor authentication app to offer Identity-Bound Biometric authentication options, that safeguards access to critical data with authentication that verifies the user, and offers multiple, easy to use authentication methods for users to choose from, all while reducing operational costs for IT departments.
For more information about the EDUCAUSE Cybersecurity and Privacy Professionals Conference, visit here. For more information about BIO-key, visit the company website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact
Sarah Barsch
Matter on behalf of BIO-key
BIO-Key@matternow.com
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Receives 2022 Govies Government Security Award from Security Today Magazine
Gold Recipient Award recognizes the PortalGuard® Platform for User Authentication/Identification/Credentialing and Management
WALL, N.J., April 28, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today announced its BIO-key PortalGuard® platform is a gold recipient of the 2022 Govies Government Security Award in the User Authentication/Identification/Credentialing and Management category.
The Govies Government Security Awards are awarded annually by Security Today magazine, the top publication for integrated products and technology for the security industry, to recognize exceptional government security products.
The risk of cyber-attacks against state and local governments is on the rise with threat actors looking not only for monetary payouts but also to disrupt critical infrastructure and impact the largest number of people possible. Cities and counties across the country have paid huge ransoms to hackers after ransomware attacks have denied access to files or hackers threatened to release sensitive data. As these attacks become more prolific, all levels of government are looking to strengthen their cyber defense models and find tested and proven IAM services.
“This award recognizes the security and convenience offered by our PortalGuard system and substantiates the hard work put in by our team to provide federal, state and local governments with the best-in-class authentication technology,” said Michael DePasquale, BIO-key Chairman and CEO. “We are honored to be selected by Security Today as a leader in providing IAM solutions to government agencies across the country.”
The BIO-key PortalGuard® IAM platform was developed by BIO-key’s security team as a flexible, cost effective and secure method for providing IAM security to its customers. By supporting a range of different methods for multi-factor authentication (MFA) including Identity-Bound Biometrics to verify a user’s identity, BIO-key PortalGuard® offers a unique set of options for organizations to establish MFA security without having to rely on user’s access to their smartphone. This gives government IT departments a greater ability to adapt to the individual needs of each department and user while retaining the highest possible level of security for the sensitive data used in public offices and agencies.
“The pandemic has wreaked havoc worldwide, but security manufacturers continued to work hard designing new security solutions for the government sector,” said Ralph C. Jensen, editor in chief, Security Today magazine and securitytoday.com. “This is truly a testament of dedication and vision to ensure the best products are available for government use. Manufacturers should be proud of their employees for providing the best solutions in these challenging times. We appreciate the opportunity to enhance the marketplace by honoring these award winners.”
To learn more about BIO-key’s solutions, visit the company website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution, that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-aService (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Texas City Joins Growing List of Municipalities Securing Access to Sensitive Data with BIO-key's PortalGuard Identity and Access Management Platform
DALLAS and WALL, N.J., April 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced that a Texas city has selected its PortalGuard IAM platform, with support for a broad array of multi-factor authentication (MFA) options, to protect its enterprise applications and data. Leveraging the PortalGuard IAM platform, the municipality can strengthen its overall security posture and effectively respond to evolving cyber threats. This new customer relationship, BIO-key’s first with a Texas municipality, was secured by Dallas-based IT consulting firm Mejeticks through BIO-key’s master agent Intelisys.
Cyber-attacks against municipalities have increased significantly in the last year, not only for monetary profit but also to disrupt critical infrastructure, with school districts, city halls, and police departments among the most vulnerable. Today, the biggest cyber threat faced by municipalities is ransomware that denies access to their files, computers, or various secure data until an often-egregious ransom is paid. In 2022, municipalities have become the focal point of state-sponsored hackers and cybercriminals seeking big payoffs and even more significant media coverage to support their malicious enterprises. Municipalities require robust, proven IAM solutions that can adapt to various secure access requirements successfully and cost-effectively.
BIO-key’s security team developed the PortalGuard IAM platform to provide cost-effective IAM security capabilities and benefits to its customers. This Texas-based municipality selected PortalGuard through a competitive procurement process, based on the solution’s comprehensive IAM capabilities and flexibility to apply appropriate security policies to a variety of user access scenarios. An essential element identified in the municipality’s decision-making process was support for numerous MFA options, including Identity-Bound Biometrics that validate the user's identity - not just the device - to access sensitive data. PortalGuard will significantly improve user access security by providing the city's IT team the ability to manage different methods of MFA security policies for all users. Importantly, PortalGuard does not require users’ phones to be a primary second factor, eliminating the security and privacy risks related to personal phones.
"As IT security becomes more strategic and critical to an organization's effectiveness, companies are looking to accelerate deployment of advanced security solutions, while also reducing IT costs and complexity," said Robert DeVita, CEO and Founder, Mejeticks. "The PortalGuard solution delivers immediate value to our customers by providing a more secure, predictable, and scalable solution versus other competitive alternatives. Through our relationship with Intelisys, we look forward to a long partnership with BIO-key providing best-of-breed security benefits to our customers."
"Increasing numbers of municipalities and local government offices worldwide have reported significant data losses due to municipal cyber-attacks which can have far greater repercussions than similar attacks on an individual company's IT assets," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "In partnership with Mejeticks and master agent Intelisys, we are uniquely positioned in the cyber security market to offer municipalities a comprehensive IAM security feature set."
About Mejeticks (www.mejeticks.com)
Mejeticks is an IT Advisory and Consulting firm with over 20 years of experience in helping Enterprise Customers with Network, Voice, Cloud, and Data Center vendor selection. With a broad offering of Technology solutions from over 250 providers, Mejeticks serves as a trusted advisor to our enterprise clients in the areas of Unified Communications (UCAAS), Network, Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS), Data Center, and Security solutions and help them transform their business to compete in today's expanding digital world. Mejeticks is proud to be powered by Intelisys.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International and 3Eye Technologies Partner to Deliver Identity-Bound Biometrics to New Markets
Partnership will offer the industry's most secure form of identity and access management solutions to governments and organizations worldwide
WALL, N.J., April 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), today announced a new partnership with 3Eye Technologies, a value-added distributor of mobile, security, and identity solutions. The affiliation will enable BIO-key to introduce its award-winning solutions and IBB to a larger set of consumers, especially in financial services and local governments. This partnership will enable them to bring higher security and convenience to organizations looking for complete IAM solution packages.
3Eye Technologies collaborates with vendors to plan and execute strategies for distributing cutting-edge technological solutions to targeted industries. The company aims to build relationships with leading technology vendors like BIO-key to empower value-added resellers (VARs) and managed service providers (MSPs) to represent, sell, and service best-in-class products.
The need for convenient, secure IAM solutions has never been higher, with an increasing amount of critical business being done online or from remote locations. Trust in who has access to what is paramount to building trust both inside an organization and for customers. In particular, governments and financial institutions are targets for threat actors to attempt to gain access to protected data. The ability to safeguard these systems needs to be matched by the ability of a diverse range of employees across multiple locations. These new requirements in these industries have driven an unprecedented need for cybersecurity solutions like those offered by BIO-key.
"The partnership between BIO-key and 3Eye Technologies will be beneficial in reaching key markets like banking, financial, local government clients as well as other enterprises," said Fred Corsentino, Chief Revenue Officer at BIO-key. "This ability to target and foster these markets will be instrumental in proliferating BIO-key's innovative solutions across industries that need to secure essential data for their employees and customers alike."
BIO-key will utilize 3Eye Technologies' network of VARs and MSPs to expand the scope of its channel sales and marketing and increase market education for organizations about the benefits of IBB-based solutions. By partnering with 3Eye Technologies, BIO-key will grow its Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) program, expand the use of IBB and continue to be a thought leader in the cybersecurity space.
"We're excited to add BIO-key to our technology products and services portfolio because its solutions address several key security concerns that affect organizations across every field," stated Reid Estreicher, VP of Business Development, 3Eye Technologies. "Cybersecurity is obviously top of mind for every organization, and BIO-key's IAM solutions are some of the most flexible and diverse in the industry, allowing our sales team to 'tailor' authentication platforms for their customers. Another key driver inspiring our partnership is the growing cyber security insurance guidelines. These new guidelines require customers to deploy multi-factor authentication to maintain their cyber security insurance coverage, or they face either a loss of coverage or significant rate increases. BIO-key is a trusted leader in this area and will help us address the organic need within the market. BIO-key is the only IAM provider that offers Identity-Bound Biometrics, which are ideally suited for 3Eye Technologies' customers across multiple industries."
To learn more about BIO-key's solutions, visit the company website. To learn more about 3Eye Technologies, visit the company website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including its PortalGuard IAM solution that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized enterprise solutions.
About 3Eye Technologies (www.3eyetech.com)
3Eye Technologies is a value-added distributor of mobility, security, and identity solutions, committed to helping our partners identify, configure, and deliver solutions that enable seamless and secure work, wherever work gets done.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes," and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology industry; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption see "Risk Factors'' in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021 and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, the Company undertakes no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Additionally, there may be other factors of which the Company is not currently aware that may affect matters discussed in forward-looking statements and may also cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed. In particular, the consequences of the coronavirus outbreak to economic conditions and the industry in general and the financial position and operating results of our Company, in particular, have been material, are changing rapidly, and cannot be predicted.
Engage with BIO-key:
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Erin Knapp
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-980
NT10k filed. https://sec.report/Document/0001437749-22-007929/
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) Q4 2021 Earnings Conference Call March 29, 2022 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Kimberly Biddings - Vice President of Product
Mike DePasquale - Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Alex Rocha - President, BIO-key EMEA
Ceci Welch - Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Jack Vander Aarde - Maxim Group
Disclaimer*: This transcript is designed to be used alongside the freely available audio recording on this page. Timestamps within the transcript are designed to help you navigate the audio should the corresponding text be unclear. The machine-assisted output provided is partly edited and is designed as a guide.
Operator
00:03 Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to BIO-key International's Full-Year 2001 Conference Call. During management's prepared remarks all participants will be in listen-only mode. Afterwards listeners will be invited to participate in a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Thursday, March 29th 2022.
00:31 I would now like to turn the call over to Kimberly Biddings, BIO-key’s Vice President of Product. Please proceed.
Kimberly Biddings
00:39 Great, thank you and thank you for joining our call this morning. With me today are BIO-key's Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale; Alex Rocca BIO-key's, newly appointed President of BIO-key EMEA and our CFO Ceci Welch.
00:54 I will like to remind everyone that today’s conference call and webcast contain forward-looking statements that are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those projected on the basis of these statements. Words such as, estimate, project, expect, anticipate, believe, think, plan, may, will or similar words typically identify and express forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management’s beliefs and assumptions using information currently available pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
01:37 For a complete description of these and other risk factors that may affect the future performance of BIO-key, please see Risk Factors in the company’s annual report filed on Form 10-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today’s date. The company undertakes no obligations to revise or disclose revisions to such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after today.
02:08 With that, I will turn the call over to Mike DePasquale. Mike?
Mike DePasquale
02:13 Thanks, Kim and good morning and thank you for joining today's call. After my prepared remarks, I will turn the call back to Kim to review some of our sales and marketing initiatives, followed by Alex Rocha to discuss our expanded opportunity in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Following our acquisition of Swivel Secure Europe earlier this month, and then Ceci will close with financial highlights.
02:41 In 2021, we grew our revenues 80% reduced our net loss by approximately 50% and substantially strengthened our suite of product offerings and our global reach. With the Swivel Secure acquisition, we now have 60 employees and management to support our growth around the globe, including a multicultural team that speaks 12 languages and manages a 24/7 security operation center in Lisbon, Portugal.
03:13 We advanced our core Identity and Access Management business launched a range of new solutions, expanded our Channel Partner program to over 100 partners and commenced deployments for our large-scale Civil ID related contracts in Africa. Additionally, we forged a master agent referral program with Intelisys to offer PortalGuard as the first IAM platform in their extensive network. We also expanded deployments of our cloud-hosted PortalGuard IDaaS solution, which supports 16 multi-factor authentication methods, including BIO-key's advanced biometric solutions or Identity-Bound Biometrics. We were achieving solid new customer engagement in higher education, enterprise, finance and government verticals, forming a growing base of recurring software subscription revenue that we will look to build on in years to come.
04:14 PortalGuard IDaaS revenue currently accounts for approximately 80% of our total software and services revenue. Our continued investment in innovation and new product development enable the launch of several new products and upgrades, including MobilePOS Pro, a handheld point of sale mobile commerce terminal with biometric ID verification targeted for deployments in Africa. We also introduced a line of FIDO2 compliance security keys for expanded authentication options and launched our new EcoID II compact USB fingerprint scanner with NISTtested algorithms.
04:56 Additionally we debuted our single sign-on or SSO Concierge Solution, which eliminates the need for passwords for thick client applications. These enhanced solutions position BIO-key to address a broader array of customer needs with state-of-the-art technologies. Bio-key also earned the number of industry awards and accolades in 2021 for our technology and solutions. Our company was also certified as a Great Place to Work for the first time in our history. And also for the first time Kim Biddings, who will speak momentarily and who gave the intro was included in CRNs 2021 Women of the Channel Power 100 list. We began initial hardware shipments on our large-scale Africa projects in 2021 after a range of external delays. These projects continue to represent very large revenue opportunities for our company and there are increasing signs of growing momentum in 2022.
05:59 We are currently supplying our Pocket10 biometric fingerprint readers in a partnership with Specta, an online lending platform owned by Sterling Bank Nigeria. These deployments are part of Nigeria's National Identity Management Commissions mandated citizen enrollment program. Subsequent to the end of the year, we acquired Swivel Secure Europe for approximately $2.25 million, the transaction substantially expands our international team operations, customer base and growth potential and should make an important contribution to our 2022 performance and beyond. The CEO of Swivel Secure, Alex Rocha has joined BIO-key to lead our EMEA business and shortly he will discuss the significant growth opportunity for our company.
06:54 The war in Ukraine and resulting sanctions had increased fears of significant potential cyber attacks on US critical infrastructure. The US Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency or CISA which is part of the US Department of Homeland Security recently issued an unusual shields up warning to businesses that says they should be prepared to defend against cyber-attacks, potentially originating from Russia. The agency said every organization, large and small must be prepared to respond to disruptive cyber activity. The warning also indicated that state and local government entities were in the cross hairs of the attackers. This continues a history of CISA warnings about vulnerable password and other non-biometric credential's.
07:48 Also in the past few weeks two competitors in the IAM and authentication space were themselves hacked. What differentiates BIO-key from these competitors is our expertise and our patented biometric technology. We have long-held the belief that identity down biometrics to our IBB must be part of a robust multifactor and holistic cyber defense. These recent breaches underscore the importance of IBB, which remains the only method of verifying the actual individual behind a transaction or data inquiry.
08:30 Considering this backdrop, and the progress we have made, we have never been more optimistic about our company's prospects. Between our PortalGuard business and Swivel Secure, we now serve an installed base of over 500 valued IAM customers. Our business is now predominantly recurring subscription-based revenue. In 2021 40% of our new PortalGuard business was sold through partners and virtually all of Swivel Secures business is sourced via partners. In 2022, we expect more than 50% of our revenues to come from the channel and this partner-centric trend should continue going forward.
09:13 Excluding Africa in hardware equipment, we expect 70% of our 2022 revenue will be contracted annual recurring revenue. Reflecting the growth drivers, we are initiating full-year 2022 revenue guidance in the range of $10 million to $13 million, which would represent approximately a doubling of revenue relative to 2021. Within this range, we anticipate potentially breakeven operations depending on our mix of hardware and higher margin software revenues. Valuations for IAM and multi-factor authentication companies or some of the highest in the security sector, as we execute our growth strategy, we believe the market will recognize our progress, my focus is in ensuring that the momentum we have built continues into 2022 and beyond.
10:11 With that, I'll turn the call back over to Kim.
Kimberly Biddings
Great. Thanks, Mike. And so our PortalGuard Solution provides secure and efficient identity and access management for applications on an enterprise-wide basis. Our cloud solution addresses significant IT security challenges, posed by remote work or study, while also supporting a broad range of authentication factors. Our solution also allows customers to move their IT off premises, eliminating the capital expenditures and resources required to host and maintain a secure authentication system.
10:48 In today's release we highlighted recent customer wins primarily within the verticals of higher education, government, finance and enterprise. In higher education, we had a new clients in 2021, including the University of Denver, Oklahoma Wesleyan University and Grand Rapids Community College [Technical Difficulty] in the fourth quarter. As of March of this year, we now support over 2.5 million students at over 200 institutions across 12 states, including 30 cloud-based or what we call IDaaS or Identity-as-a-Service customers. Existing customers continue to migrate from our earlier on-premises solutions to our cloud offering and many also are expanding their adoption of our solutions.
11:36 As you point out that just this month, we showcased our IM Solutions at the California Community College Tech Summit, where several customers hosted sessions demonstrating the success they've had with our platform. In Q4, we also showcased our solutions at the 2021 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference in Philadelphia. In the government sector, we added new customers in 2021 and expanding relationships with others, customers include US Department of Justice division, the Foreign Defense Ministry, a West Coast States, Several Election Boards and County Government Customers in New Mexico, South Dakota, Missouri, New York and Florida.
12:17 Our large-scale biometric projects in Africa are also government-related projects. Recent wins include the Orange County; Florida Supervisor of Elections; Herkimer County, New York; Audrain County, Missouri and Warren County, South Dakota. Importantly, county government decision making is being driven both by the need to enhance data and cyber security and also for compliance with cyber security insurance requirements. Since that are in the increasing pace of data breaches and compliance requirements, we expect more counties and government agencies will look at PortalGuard’s frictionless and secure solutions.
12:55 To support this end market in March BIO-key sponsored a cyber security workshop at the New York State Association of Counties or NYSAC, legislative conference in Albany. And in Q4, we were at the 2021 National Association of State Chief Information Officer or NASCIO Annual Conference in Seattle. Other Q4 customer wins included Americas Auto Action and Orange Bank and Trust Company, who selected PortalGuard IDaaS with biometrics to secure network and data access across all of their branch locations. We are targeting 1,200 of the largest credit unions and regional bank and we expect this vertical to represent a significant portion of our growth in 2022.
13:41 In terms of marketing, which is [Technical Difficulty] we completed more than a dozen media interviews in 2021 and placed our BIO line submission in key publications, such as Security Boulevard, Security Magazine, Payments Journal, DPN and Help Net Security. We also are expanding our social media presence, resulting in the increase and higher quality traffic to our website BIO-key.com.
14:08 Touching for a moment on our Channel Alliance Partner or CAP program, Mike mentioned that we added over 100 channel partners in 2021. 2021 partner additions included; NGEN; Appsian; Cyberlitica; Kristel Communications and UVS Infotech along with our master agent referral partner program with Intelisys. Channel partners represented nearly 50% of the net new bookings in Q4 and we expect the CAP program to continue to be integral part of our future growth.
14:41 To support these efforts, we launched our Partner Web Portal in mid 2021. This portal provides a central location for resources, training, and a new deal registration process and we also exhibited at the 2021 Channel Partners Conference and Expo in Q4. In summary, our marketing efforts continue to expand our brand and position BIO-key for further expansion in 2022.
At this time, I would like to introduce and welcome Alex Rocha, the Former CEO and sold stockholder of Swivel Secure Europe, who now heads our European, Middle East and African effort. Alex is an innovation enthusiasts, who has lived and worked in several countries and he speaks four languages. This is Alex's first public call since joining the BIO-key team.
15:30 Alex, over to you.
Alex Rocha
15:34 Thank you, Kimberly. I'd like to give my comments briefly, but I'd like to express my sincere optimism about the business opportunity in the EMEA region. First, Swivel Secure is the industry leader in authentication solution in Europe, it is a award winning, outcome to all solution believer, multi-factor authentication, single sign-on and risk base authentication to secure cloud and on-premise application. Our solution can authenticate access for employees, customers and supply to log-in onto Office 365, transacting to their commerce B2B or B2C all accessing ERP or CRM.
16:24 Our existing business Swivel Secure Europe has over $3 million in revenue in 2021 and was profitable. We currently have three offices, 28 staff members and three MFI focus product and our flagship out control brand, designed for small and large enterprise and management service provider MSPs. We have approximately 300 established active customers also counting with the channel network of more than a 100 partners, as we employee a 100% channel strategy in the EMEA region. Our technology partners, including SAP, Red Hat, Samsung, Seafricks, Microsoft, SailPoint and Oracle.
17:22 Marquee clients include Vodafone, Telefonica, Toyota, Maersk, DB Schenker, DHL, IBM and AMD Techs, more well known as the owner of Zara. In this guys we protect more that a quarter of million of employees spread over 93 countries every day with the operation of 24/7. I will say that we know to and we have proven how to build brand awareness in the region and you will hear from us as quickly a rollout of our strategy of the combined business over the next 90-days.
18:10 One example, one special project that will be a rollout in -- is BIO-key University, which involve an on-demand online training platform to help launch the brand and build awareness in those new markets and knowledge channel allows us to multiply our brands and look alike the strategy, whilst we build the awareness, we see significant opportunities for BIO-key’s innovated products, employee identity, biometrics, IBB in the market that we serve. I look forward to address you on the future call and discuss our progress in the EMEA region, as well as answering any questions.
19:04 At this time I will pass the call over to Ceci Welch to review BIO-key financial through December, which not includes Swivel Secure as the deal closed in March, but short beneficiary for future quarters.
Ceci Welch
19:23 Thank you, Alex. BIO-key’s revenue increased to $5.1 million in 2021 from $2.8 million in fiscal year ’20, mainly due to the revenue derived from PortalGuard’s IIM Solutions and increased sales of biometric fingerprint meters. Q4 revenue was $0.9 million versus $1.1 million in Q4 ’20, and prior-year period benefiting from the launch of the PortalGuard IDaaS and the strength in services and hardware sales.
19:54 Gross profit grew to $3.4 million in fiscal year ‘21 from $2 million in fiscal year ’20, primarily due to a 166% increase in higher margin license fee revenue in fiscal year ’21. Gross margin on the license fee revenue was 93% in fiscal year ‘21 versus 95% in fiscal year ’20. Q4 ‘21 license fee revenue increased 52% to 544,000 and represented 88% of the total gross profit in Q4 ‘21 versus 69% in Q4 ’20.
20:34 Operating expenses increased to $8.4 million in FY ‘21 from $7.2 million in FY ’20. The increase reflected higher investment in research, development and engineering expense related to our active slate of new product introductions, as well as the full-year of expense related to the PortalGuard operation in FY ’21.
20:58 The company reduced its operating loss by 5% to $4.9 million in FY ‘21 versus $5.2 million in FY ’20, as the revenue growth surpassed expense growth. BIO-key report, excuse me, a reduced net loss available to common shareholders of $5.1 million or $0.65 for FY ‘21 versus $9.8 million or $2.08 per share in FY ’20, due to a successful capital raise in Q3 ’20, interest expense was reduced to 18,000 in FY ‘21 versus $4.3 million in FY ’20.
21:38 In Q4 ‘21 net loss to shareholders increased to $2 million from $1.4 million in Q2 -- Q4 ’20, primarily due to the lower operating income. Bio-key ended the year with $1.4 million in current assets, $7.8 million of cash and cash equivalent and one -- sorry $14 million of current assets, $7.8 million of cash and cash equivalents, $12 million of working capital and $15.6 million of stockholders' equity. For comparative BIO-key had $18,9 million of current assets, $15.4 million net working capital and $20.3 million stockholders' equity at the end of 2020.
22:22 In 2021, we invested $5.2 million of net working capital to support our growth. These investments were primarily in inventory as we have -- thus have managed our supply chain without any significant negative impacts to our business, while also prepping for an anticipated increase in business volume in the coming quarters.
22:42 And with that, we can turn the call back to the operator for any questions from investors.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
22:48 Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session. [Operator Instructions] And today’s first question comes from Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Jack Vander Aarde
23:22 Great. Good morning, guys. Appreciate the quarterly update, congrats on the lease acquisition as well. Couple of questions from me, I'll start with a housekeeping question, I'm not sure I saw the 10-K filed or if you mentioned it, but will that be filed today? Or when will it be?
Ceci Welch
23:40 We filed in the next day or so, yes. It has not been filed yet.
Jack Vander Aarde
23:47 Okay, so it sounds imminent though. Okay, that's helpful. And then, Michael, you mentioned in your prepared remarks that you're seeing increasing signs that business is starting to pick up and likely to ramp throughout 2022, specifically regarding those two large initial Africa contracts. I heard some of your points, but maybe can you just help me better understand or just clarify what the key points are that suggests this building momentum and gives you confidence for these two Africa contracts?
Mike DePasquale
24:21 Yes. Thanks, Jack, absolutely. So I think it was probably early in or mid-Q4 we made some announcements that financing for our equipment that we were delivering into Africa was starting to process through the banks. And we made a formal announcement, we issued a press release late February, early March, that we have a relationship with Sterling Bank and a product they have called Specta, which basically finances the purchase of equipment, software and hardware that's necessary for the agents that are going to go out and do all of these enrollments in the remote locations to get into business in essence, and so that's very encouraging for us right now. And we have a number of financial institutions that are going to be coming on board, doing the same thing. So we're encouraged by that, because the biggest issue that we've seen is the money at a very high level through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund and even the government is available, but getting that money down to the street level to actually get something done, has been the challenge. So now that the banks are on board, we are encouraged and believe that the deployments will accelerate.
Jack Vander Aarde
25:57 Okay, got you. No, that makes sense. And are you still expecting, let's say, it does accelerate -- are you still -- would you expect the initial batch or upfront revenue mix related to those contracts to be related to hardware sales? And have, you know, some sort of lumpy batch deployments of those hardware sales? Or I mean, just any comments there would be helpful in terms of the mix? And how you would deploy things at once, it really starts getting going?
Mike DePasquale
26:31 Yes. So what we've done, if you look at our guidance, for example, we’ve took a very conservative approach as it relates to the hardware. We did that because again over the last 18-months, we had been anticipating that things were going to start up, they were going to happen more quickly and they obviously did, so we took a very conservative approach. So the hardware will be episodal, we do believe there is still significant, significant upside for the sale of product. But what's also happened over the last six to nine months is our software platform, which again will be a recurring revenue stream for securing access to the devices and to authenticate to applications, for example, in finance and banking and healthcare that has also started to come into play.
27:22 So we're going to see a combination of hardware and recurring revenue, software revenue, subscription revenue, our transaction revenue begin to get deployed in the second quarter and beyond. So it's going to be a combination of both. But our guidance takes into consideration a very, very, very conservative approach on the hardware side for Africa.
Jack Vander Aarde
27:52 Okay. And then I guess if I'm looking at your fourth quarter revenues and I appreciate the comments on the channel, I mean, it's something new bookings are heavily weighted to the channel as well over 50% or nearly 50%. You know, that’s going to represent the channel represent a big portion of your 2022 revenue over 50%. But if I look at just like from a segment perspective fourth quarter license revenue and services revenue was down sequentially. I would imagine with the building momentum and traction with the channels and, you know, PortalGuard being in the mix now for four quarters at least, that license fees would be linearly increasing sequentially, but can you help me understand the disconnect there?
Mike DePasquale
28:46 They are absolutely going to increase sequentially. What you saw was a -- we had a very, very large one single large contract that renewed, kind of, off cycle. And so that's why we saw the fourth quarter license revenue off a little bit, that's going to change dramatically, even as we approach and finish out the first quarter this week. So you will see growth across the board. What you will also see, keep in mind the Swivel Secure transaction closed in March, so in our first quarter will pick up a little bit of revenue for that transaction in the first quarter, and then obviously every quarter beyond into and through 2022.
29:35 As you know Swivel Secure Europe as we acquired it generated a little over $3 million in revenue and over $0.5 million in net income, so it was accretive, it's profitable and it's going to have a significant impact on our financial picture going forward. That business is also nearly 100% channel related, so the bulk of that business, if not all of it is channel related, all of it is -- the majority of it is all software, so it's high margin, and that's going to certainly support our financial picture in 2022.
Jack Vander Aarde
30:17 Okay, great, that's helpful. And then so in speaking of Swivel just so they generated about $3.1 million of revenue and pretty solid profit of 578K of operating profit during 2021. Do you expect Swivel’s revenue, so that $3.1 million to grow in 2022, just any key quantified -- maybe provide a range any added color would be helpful? And then [Multiple Speakers] understand I tied back to you. Okay.
Mike DePasquale
30:50 Yes, yes, we're not breaking things down at that level at this point, we are providing guidance on an overall basis. I will say this, we expect all of our business to grow and obviously there is another component here, there is the cross-sell opportunity for our IBB or our Identity Bound Biometrics, which is becoming more of a mandate now with everything that's going on in the geopolitical scenario across the globe. So that in and of itself will create an up-sell opportunity throughout that installed base of over 300 customers. So we do expect that business to grow and we expect it to grow as a result of, again, integrating and making available immediately the biometric option for all of those clients.
Jack Vander Aarde
31:41 Okay, got you. And then in terms of just you mentioned something about headcount, the combined head count, I think, I heard was over 60 employees –
Mike DePasquale
31:51 Correct.
Jack Vander Aarde
31:52 What does this mean for OpEx? And what does that mean for I guess your operating expense? How do I think about gross margin, sounds like Swivel’s all software and high margin? And how do I also think about the impact -- obviously the first quarter is different, because just partial contribution from the acquisition? But on a normalized full-quarter basis, what it is due to your gross margin profile, I mean, it's going to vary because of mix, probably, but imagine gross margin goes up, and I imagine operating expenses go up as well, but just how much, I guess, just any color would be helpful?
Mike DePasquale
32:22 Well, again, you know, we’ll -- as we get in and announced our first quarter, I think, we'll put -- there'll be a lot more color on that right now, I can't provide those numbers. But I will say this, again, Swivel is profitable, it will continue to be profitable, and so there will be no drag only upside. And so you'll be able to model, I think, you'll be able to model the year a little bit better as we announce our first quarter.
Jack Vander Aarde
32:54 Okay and then just, you know, another, kind of, tough question just in terms of -- if I can try to understand the guidance a little better from the revenue side, so 2022 revenue guidance $10 million to $13 million, if I were to back out Swivel and just assume it was flat of $3 million, right, so it’s on that $7 million to $10 million. At the low end of that guidance range of like $7 million from the core BIO-key business for [indiscernible] and PortalGuard? Is there any Africa baked -- is that like a -- the worst-case scenario is like, no Africa contract revenues really recognize, it’s more of the core channel business picking up and driving that growth from like a worst-case scenario? And then at the top of the range, obviously, it's going to incorporate Swivel, and it probably still doesn't include all of the Africa potential that could happen, but just trying to understand the lower end and then the upper bound of those ranges?
Mike DePasquale
33:50 I think, I think you figured it out, I think you said it, I was pretty clear and articulate in saying that we took an ultra conservative approach on Africa. So for sure we're taking a minimalist approach saying it's episode, if it happens when it happens and we believe it will happen, we have quite a few significant opportunities again now that the funding is starting to roll, but we've taken a very conservative approach in our guidance. There is another element here, and I mentioned in my prepared comments, and I've been speaking about this is I make the conference rounds. It's pretty clear, if you’d look at the valuations in the Identity and Access Management space, in particular in the authentication privileged access management governance space, a big companies like for example OKTA and SailPoint larger companies like there is, do well which is a division of Cisco.
34:47 When you look at the multiples in that sector of the security space they are amazing. And if you look at BIO-key's revenue, especially now 70% of what we described there will be contracted in subscription-based and recurring. Our valuations in multiples centered just solely around the Identity and Access Management space, really put us in my opinion a good position and our investors in a very good position for upside. So I'm not been I'm trying to change the narrative here, but at the end of the day, the real value for BIO-key going forward centers around our Identity and Access Management business, because again it's recurring, because it's high margin, because the way, the world unfortunately has changed over the last six months in particular over the last 90-days, there is going to be an incredible demand for super strong MFA. And we are one of the few, if may be the only company back in offer with our Identity Bound Biometrics positive identification of an individual, who is sitting behind the computer, accessing information or consummating a transaction.
36:03 We announced the product halfway through last year called mobile off with palm positive, which is a mobile authentication solution first method of biometric authentication was palm, you will see some additional announcements from us in the near-term and expanding that product that will give us the ability to go CIA again meaning to go to the customer to go B2C. So to have some of our enterprise customers, who [house] (ph) consumer data and information to without them to be able to use biometric authentication for their customers coming into their portals, so we think we are in a very, very good position to take advantage of that. And again, our guidance is based predominantly on that mantra and growing our IAM business and growing it profitably, my focus is absolutely going to be getting the company to profitability this year and doing it sooner rather than later.
Jack Vander Aarde
37:09 Okay, fantastic. Well, I appreciate the color and I appreciate the time. Thank you.
Operator
37:14 [Operator Instructions] Today's next question comes from Dan [indiscernible], he is a private investor. Please go ahead.
Unidentified Analyst
37:29 Good morning.
Mike DePasquale
37:30 Good morning, Dan.
Unidentified Analyst
37:31 Yes, I was wondering if -- so is the long-term plan to transition all of Swivel customers to PortalGuard?
Mike DePasquale
37:43 I would say that many of those customers will ultimately move to PortalGuard, because of the enhanced security capability with biometrics. But some of those customers will stay with the product that they have and we have the ability to begin that to continue to sell and to market and support that product as well. But ultimately, there will be a shift, because of the nature of our PortalGuard platform.
Unidentified Analyst
38:14 Okay. So the next question would be -- are there technical difficulties in Swivel customers switching to ProGuard, they require additional development in your part? Or is it pretty much turnkey?
Mike DePasquale
38:28 Pretty much turnkey. Those customers can utilize the cloud, they can utilize our on-prem solution, if that's what they Swivel desire. They can take advantage of the 16 factors of authentication that we provide today. And of course our integrated and identity bound biometric solutions, which again provide strong authentication options, as well as our mobile off. So there's really no technical hurdle for them to go one or the other.
Unidentified Analyst
39:02 Okay. I just have a question for Mr. Rocha, I guess if he can answer the question. I'm just wondering, why he believes that he can double his earnings from 500K to $1 million, I'm wondering, if you could give me some color on that? Or if you can't that's okay, too.
Alex Rocha
39:26 Of course. First of all, thank you for the question. I think what we're going to see here is the combined effort going to make that happen. Okay, again today in Swivel Secure we have three products, but we don't have IBB platform. IBB platform is going to make a difference also be associated with NYSAC brand going to make the difference. Everything is positive right now, again, we're going to present the numbers, that's going to be in line what we agreed, and you're going to see already a growing of that revenue. The strategy behind it's very simple continue what we have been doing for this years. But if you see, we have been double our revenue and our profit year-over-year. That means, I think this is the normal process right now and what we expect to present.
Unidentified Analyst
40:35 Okay, thank you. Let me switch to Nigeria, has Nigeria paid any more of the 100K hardware delivery yet?
Mike DePasquale
40:46 Yes, they paid some. It’s slow, but they paid some setting up these banking relationships that I described before in my prepared comments, and then in my answers to Jack are really going to help. And we're hoping that, that's going to accelerate that significantly in the near-term. That's been the hold up all along quite frankly.
Unidentified Analyst
41:10 Okay. Should we expect the revenue guidance to be pretty much back-end loaded in the back half of 2022?
Mike DePasquale
41:21 No, no, absolutely not. I think as I've described, I think extensively with the subscription-based recurring nature of our revenue stream right now, we expect it to be more even and more predictable. So I don't believe that it will be back-end weighted.
Unidentified Analyst
41:46 Fantastic. Have there any revenues been received so far, based on the Sterling Bank deal, I know it's early.
Mike DePasquale
41:54 Yes, yes. Yes, we’re making progress, it’s slow. The biggest challenge for them, it’s kind of a little side note is KYC, so when you on board for example you open a bank account here, the bank needs to know who you are, they need to get some background information on you. They'll do a credit report, they can use knowledge base questions to ensure that you really are who you say you are. That's a significant challenge in the third world, because, for example, the experience or TransUnion's or Equifax's of the world don't operate there. And so that's a big challenge for them, so knowing who they're doing business with, it takes a lot longer than it would take for example here in the US or in Europe or in the developed world.
Unidentified Analyst
42:47 Like chicken in the egg.
Mike DePasquale
42:48 Yes, it's -- it really, it's kind of amazing and that's why tying an identity to an individual is so critically, critically important, because here again you can run a credit report on anyone as a business on an individual you can do it 5 times a month, if you want. And you can continually monitor that individual. But in the third world, that's almost impossible. So once you have a Bound Identity, then you really know who that individual is as they travel from one place to another or they access one system or another. So no batch what again in essence the World Bank is trying to accomplish here, right. Knowing that the only way that they're going to be able to pull people out of poverty right is to create an ecosystem that has credibility and that's what we're doing with all of the enrollments and beginning phases of the digital transformation in Nigeria and other countries in Africa as well.
Unidentified Analyst
43:51 Okay, I understand. If, let's say, let’s assume that Africa really starts to roll this stuff out and the revenues start to flow. What's to stop major competitors from coming in and knocking out of the market?
Mike DePasquale
44:08 Well, I would say two things: number one, we have some pretty good inventory and access to manufacturing to be able to produce and to source a lot of equipment, very quickly, that's number one. Number two, we are -- as I described also before, where we are now pretty far along in incorporating our software and our identity management solutions across those platforms, which will create, you know, a pretty strong barrier to entry. Our biometric technology, especially our mobile biometric technologies will provide a pretty significant barrier to entry. Look at -- across the board at all of the IAM players that I mentioned a number of them before, I won't go through it again. They have and support all the traditional factors of authentication that are getting hacked, that are getting compromised.
45:15 We are the only one that really has the innate integrated biometric solutions that can be automatically and immediately dropped it by any customer, if they want to strengthen their cyber defenses. That's why Kim mentioned banks -- many of our banking customers, many of our county government customers are going biometrics, because that is the strongest form of authentication that's available, and it's the only way again to positively identify an individual behind the transaction. So I think that's the barrier to entry for us, right? It’s that we provide a full and complete solution, not just one component of it. And look, we're not going to go and spend $50 million sourcing hardware, but at the end of the day, if we can do it in a managed way, if we can grab the margin and we can remain in control of the solution, it makes sense for us to do that as long as it continues to make sense for us to do it, we'll do it if it doesn't, we won't.
Unidentified Analyst
46:22 Okay, last question here too. Would you say you're in the bulls-eye of this 2021 security executive order or just in the periphery?
Mike DePasquale
46:36 You know, I probably will let Kim comment on that, because we've been doing an awful lot of work around that area. I would say we're in the bulls-eye, but we're also, you don't have tremendous advantages, as I just described. But maybe Kim will have some additional comments.
Kimberly Biddings
46:56 Yes. Sure, Dan and so I agree, I think right in the bull's-eye of it. Looking at even the past 10-years of what companies have been even to do security, authentication there's never been a more compelling time at this point to use as we mentioned Identity-Bound Biometrics and really help especially government, what we've seen the county government strengthening their defenses and finally bring their cyber security posture to where it needs to be to handle the attacks in the effects that are happening today. So adding square within the bull's-eye of it, in terms of the executive order with zero trust strengthening defenses in multi-factor authentication that is what we have our government customers coming to us for, and we are square in a position to offer them something that a competitively speaking is not available other places. So right in the bulls-eye and very excited to go into this year in that position.
Unidentified Analyst
47:54 Okay. Kim, do you have any like is that showing up statistically at all yet in reaches or calls or website or you have any statistical evidence for that?
Kimberly Biddings
48:08 In terms of the traction with the actual government implementations or customer.
Unidentified Analyst
48:14 Yes, in terms of that or around.
Kimberly Biddings
48:16 I mean -- from the mentions that I had in the part that I read through the influx of county government is a great example there and our continued participation with the National Association of Counties at the national and now actually at the state level is New York State Association of Counties and they're really leaning in to partners like us and that traction is seen not only in customer acquisition, but and also our participation in those events, speaking engagements, spot leadership, they really are leaning into to provide the guidance there.
Unidentified Analyst
48:53 I see, that's great, that's great. Last question, yes, go ahead, Mike.
Mike DePasquale
48:57 No, I was only going to make one other comment, Dan it's interesting, we’ve also seen a sales cycle on the county government side that almost really has amazed us that from start to finish a number of these counties that we closed, we were in a cycle of less than 90 days, which is amazing. So I think that's a good example of the heightened awareness and needed requirement to get something done, and get it done quickly. And then we're also as money available to make it happen and money can also be allocated on an emergency basis to make it happen. So it's a good place to be right now.
Unidentified Analyst
49:35 Well, that must have been competitive. Why did they pick you in 90 days or how could they pick you in 90 days. Sorry to ask you, I'm just curious?
Mike DePasquale
49:43 Well, I think it's pretty straightforward. You know, they have a need, they have a requirements, they have heightened awareness and compliance issues that they face. And they can move very, very quickly as long as we are available under the buying vehicles that we participate in, with our partners, it’s very easy for them to buy. And so that's the trick what people don't understand is that you really, even though you're selling directly to the county, they are not procuring directly through you, they are procuring through a buying vehicle that is a partner that we work with our support like an SHI and there are millions others, so that's how they can buy so quickly.
Unidentified Analyst
50:29 Last question, can you say who were the competitors that were hacked?
Mike DePasquale
50:35 I think it's public information, the Okta 1 was so broad, it was all over the news. So that one pretty clearly I guess was announced, maybe a week or so ago. So that one I can clearly talk about the other, I won't.
Unidentified Analyst
50:56 Okay, thank you very much guys for answering all my questions.
Mike DePasquale
50:59 You're welcome.
Operator
51:02 [Operator Instructions] Again ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the question-and-answer session. I’d like to turn the conference back over to Mike DePasquale for any closing remarks.
Mike DePasquale
51:21 Thank you. I just want to thank everyone for joining today's call. We look forward to updating you on our Q1 call in May, which will come around pretty quickly now. In the meantime, we will participate in the H.C. Wainwright Conference, which is May 23rd to the 26th and we will continue to provide regular news and updates and press releases as developments occur within the business. Again, thank you for your time and have a great day.
Operator
51:49 Again, ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's conference call. We thank you all for attending in today's presentation. You may now disconnect your lines and have a wonderful day.
Identity and Access Management Security Provider BIO-key’s 2021 Revenue Rose 80% to $5.1M, Driven by Demand for Identity-as-a Service Cloud Solutions; Investor Call Today at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., March 29, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) and large-scale identity solutions, today reported results for its fourth quarter (Q4’21) and year ended December 31, 2021 (FY’21). BIO-key will host a conference call today at 10:00 a.m. ET (details below) to review its results and outlook.
BIO-key’s® revenue increased 80% to $5.1M in FY’21, from $2.8M in 2020 (FY’20), driven primarily by deployments of its PortalGuard® IAM solution and the launch of a cloud hosted version, PortalGuard IDaaS (IDentity-as-a-Service), in November 2020.
2021 & Recent Highlights:
Increased PortalGuard Penetration of Secondary Educational Institutions - PortalGuard now supports over 2.5M students and faculty nationwide.
Added or Expanded Numerous Government Customers, including a U.S. Department of Justice division; a Foreign Defense Ministry; a West Coast State; and Election Boards & County Governments in New Mexico; South Dakota; Missouri; New York; and Florida.
Began Initial Technology and Mobile Biometric Enrollment Equipment Deployments, for its Large-Scale ID Projects in Africa.
Added over 100 Channel Alliance Partners, including: Intelisys; NGEN; Appsian; Cyberlitica; Kristel Communications and UVS Infotech.
Secured a $1.2M, three-year contract extension for fingerprint biometric security support services from a Fortune 500 telecommunications customer.
Launched a Range of New Products and features, including SSO Concierge; a new PortalGuard Admin Panel; MobileAuth™ App with PalmPositive™; FIDO2 Compliant Security Keys; a Next-Generation EcoID II USB Compact Fingerprint Scanner; and the MobilePOS Pro Android All-in-one Terminal for biometric-secured Commerce.
Awarded U.S. Patent for Enabling Next-generation Continuous Biometric User Authentication, increasing BIO-key’s IP Portfolio to 18 patents.
In March 2022, BIO-key further expanded its global customer base and geographic reach with the acquisition of Swivel Secure Europe, a Madrid-based IAM solutions provider serving customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). Swivel Secure generated approximately $3.1M in revenue and $578K in operating income in calendar 2021.
BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale commented, “2021 was a year of transformational growth for BIO-key, as we advanced our core Identity and Access Management business, launched a range of new solutions, expanded our Channel Partner Program, and commenced deployments for our large-scale Civil ID contracts in Africa. We substantially expanded our sales & marketing reach in 2021, adding over 100 partners to our CAP program, and launched a Master Agent Referral Program with Intelisys, positioning PortalGuard as the first IAM platform to be offered through their extensive network.
“We also made excellent progress deploying our new cloud-hosted PortalGuard IDaaS solution, which we launched late in 2020. We are achieving solid new customer engagement, particularly in higher education, enterprise and government verticals that are very receptive to PortalGuard’s support for sixteen multi-factor authentication (MFA) methods, including BIO-key’s advanced biometric solutions. PortalGuard IDaaS continues to gain momentum in higher education as a strong, user friendly, attractively priced, scalable and easy-to-deploy solution for their hybrid access needs. In the first year of deployment we migrated approximately 7% of our existing customers to our IDaaS solution, increasing average annual recurring revenue by roughly 300% and forming a growing base of recurring software subscription revenue that we look to build on in the years to come. Currently, IDaaS revenue accounts for approximately 80% of our total software and non-recurring service revenue.
“Our continued focus on innovation and new product development resulted in the launch of several new products and product upgrades. New products included our new MobilePOS Pro, a handheld Point-of-Sale mobile commerce terminal with biometric ID verification for secure, fraud-free transactions in banking, healthcare and social and aid worker applications. We introduced a line of cryptographic FIDO2 compliant security keys for expanded authentication options and launched our new EcoID II Compact USB fingerprint scanner with new NIST-tested algorithms. We also introduced our Single Sign-On or SSO Concierge which eliminates the need for passwords for thick client applications not supported by identity federation protocols.
“I am extremely proud of the industry awards and acknowledgements BIO-key received during the year, including for our Technology and Best Solution Awards, and for our organization being Certified™ by Great Place to Work® for the first time.
“Our large-scale Africa projects kicked off in 2021 after COVID and other external delays. These projects represent a large opportunity in terms of revenue and profits for our company. Hardware shipments resumed in 2021 and there are increasing signs that these projects should gain momentum in 2022. We are currently planning on supplying tens of thousands of Pocket10 biometric fingerprint readers in a partnership with Specta, an online lending platform owned by Sterling Bank Nigeria Plc. These shipments are part of the National Identity Management Commission’s (NIMC) mandated enrollment program for Nigerian citizens.
“Subsequent to year end we acquired Swivel Secure Europe. The transaction substantially expands our international team, operations, customer base, and growth potential, and should provide a material benefit to both our top- and bottom-line in 2022.
Outlook
“Awareness of the need for enhanced cybersecurity has never been more widespread. In 2021, the President signed EO 14028, “Improving the Nation’s Cybersecurity” to support defenses and protect critical infrastructure of the Federal Government. Just last week, the White House warned companies that we are currently in a critical moment with a need to accelerate work to improve domestic cybersecurity and bolster national resilience. BIO-key’s solutions and products directly address these issues and are critical elements of a holistic approach to cybersecurity.
“Considering this backdrop, the momentum we have in our business, the addition of Swivel Secure Europe, and the building progress in our African projects, we have never been more optimistic about our prospects. Supported by our strong capital position, our talented global management and product development teams, we are very optimistic about our growth in 2022 and beyond. Reflecting the visibility we have on our business, we are initiating full-year 2022 revenue guidance in the range of $10-13M, representing potential growth in excess of 100% over 2021. We estimate that we can achieve break-even operations within this revenue range, subject to our mix of hardware and higher-margin software revenue.
Financial Results
FY’21 revenue increased 80% to $5.1M from $2.8M in FY’20, due primarily to revenue from the Company’s PortalGuard IAM solutions, as well as increased sales of biometric hardware, including fingerprint readers. Q4’21 revenue declined to $935K from $1.1M in Q4’20, which had benefitted from the PortalGuard IDaaS launch and strong services and hardware sales.
Gross profit grew to $3.4M in FY’21 from $2.0M in FY’20, due primarily to a 166% increase in higher-margin license fee revenue to $2.5M in FY’21. Gross margin on license fee revenue was 93% in FY’21 vs. 95% in FY’20. In Q4’21, license fee revenue increased 52% to $544k from $357k in Q4’20 and represented 88% of total gross profit vs. 69% in Q4’20.
Operating expenses increased to $8.4M in FY’21 (164% of revenue) from $7.2M (255% of revenue) in FY’20. The increase reflected higher investments in research, development and engineering expense with an increase in personnel and spending to support new product development, as well as a full year of expenses related to PortalGuard operations in FY’21. Total operating expenses increased 18.% to $2.6M in Q4’21, due principally to increased research, development and engineering expenses related to the development of next generation solutions.
BIO-key reported a reduced operating loss of $4.9M in FY’21 vs. $5.2M in FY’20, as revenue growth outpaced expense growth. The company’s Q4’21 operating loss increased to $2M from a loss of $1.4M in Q4’20, due to lower revenues and higher expenses in Q4’21.
BIO-key reported a reduced net loss available to common stockholders of $5.1M, or $0.65 per share, in FY’21, as compared to $9.8M, or $2.08 per share, in FY’20. Weighted average basic shares outstanding were approximately 7.8M in FY’21 vs. 4.7M in FY’20, with both years reflecting a 1-for-8 reverse split in Q4’20, following a successful capital raise in Q3’20. Due to the offering, interest expense was reduced to just $18K in 2021 from $4.3M in FY’21. BIO-key’s net loss to stockholders increased to $2M in Q4’21 from $1.4M in Q4’20, primarily due to lower operating income.
Financial Strength
BIO-key ended the year with $14.0M of current assets; including $7.75M of cash and cash equivalents; $11.9M of net working capital; and $15.6M of stockholders’ equity.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Today, Tuesday, March 29th at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Investor Webcast & Replay – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 8157908
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key has over two decades of expertise in providing authentication technology for thousands of organizations and millions of users and is revolutionizing authentication with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions, including PortalGuard that provides convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading biometric capabilities, enable large-scale on-premises and Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions as well as customized enterprise and cloud solutions.
BIO-key Safe Harbor Statement
All statements contained in this press release other than statements of historical facts are "forward-looking statements" as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Act"). The words "estimate," "project," "intends," "expects," "anticipates," "believes" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs, as well as assumptions made by, and information currently available to, management pursuant to the "safe-harbor" provisions of the Act. These statements are not guarantees of future performance or events and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those included within or implied by such forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, our history of losses and limited revenue; our ability to raise additional capital; our ability to protect our intellectual property; changes in business conditions; changes in our sales strategy and product development plans; changes in the marketplace; continued services of our executive management team; security breaches; competition in the biometric technology and identity access management industries; market acceptance of biometric products generally and our products under development; our ability to execute and deliver on contracts in Africa; our ability to expand into Asia, Africa and other foreign markets; our ability to integrate the operations and personnel of PistolStar and Swivel Secure into our business; the duration and severity of the current coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and its effect on our business operations, sales cycles, personnel, and the geographic markets in which we operate; the duration and extent of continued hostilities in Ukraine and its impact on our European customers, delays in the development of products and statements of assumption underlying any of the foregoing as well as other factors set forth under the caption "Risk Factors" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to disclose any revision to these forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
LinkedIn – Corporate: https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
Twitter – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
Media Contact Investor Contact
Erin Knapp William Jones, David Collins
Matter Communications Catalyst IR
BIO-key@matternow.com BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
914-260-3158 212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
Three months ended
December 31, Years ended
December 31,
2021 2020 2021 2020
Revenues
Services $ 288,191 $ 503,667 $ 1,273,354 $ 1,432,228
License fees 544,199 356,672 2,555,809 962,038
Hardware 102,542 203,491 1,285,326 442,516
Total revenues 934,932 1,063,830 5,114,489 2,836,782
Costs and other expenses
Cost of services 174,815 165,274 686,175 502,214
Cost of license fees 49,871 20,405 183,199 49,891
Cost of hardware 147,365 124,821 803,555 242,721
Total costs and other expenses 372,051 310,500 1,672,929 794,826
Gross Profit 562,881 753,330 3,441,560 2,041,956
Operating expenses
Selling, general and administrative 1,752,344 1,765,119 6,028,360 5,848,687
Research, development and engineering 809,856 409,761 2,355,056 1,396,436
Total operating expenses before impairment 2,562,200 2,174,880 8,383,416 7,245,123
Operating loss (1,999,319 ) (1,421,550 ) (4,941,856 ) (5,203,167 )
Other income (expense)
Interest income 299 3,741 4,075 30,649
Foreign Currency Loss - - (50,000 ) -
Investment-debt security reserve (30,000 ) - (60,000 ) -
Government grant – Paycheck Protection Program - - - 340,819
Interest expense - (19,635 ) (18,000 ) (4,343,212 )
Loss on extinguishment of debt - - - (499,076 )
Total other income (expense) (29,701 ) (15,894 ) (123,925 ) (4,470,820 )
Net loss (2,029,020 ) (1,437,444 ) (5,065,781 ) (9,673,987 )
Deemed dividend from trigger of anti-dilution provision feature - - - (112,686 )
Net loss available to common stockholders $ (2,029,020 ) $ (1,437,444 ) (5,065,781 ) (9,786,673 )
Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share $ (0.26 ) $ (0.18 ) $ (0.65 ) $ (2.08 )
Weighted Average Shares Outstanding:
Basic and Diluted 7,797,573 7,771,523 7,791,741 4,700,787
All BIO-key shares issued and outstanding for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-8 reverse stock split, which was effective November 20, 2020.
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
December 31,
2021 2020
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 7,754,046 $ 16,993,096
Accounts receivable, net 970,626 548,049
Due from factor 49,500 60,453
Note receivable 82,000 295,000
Inventory 4,940,660 330,947
Prepaid expenses and other 216,041 201,507
Investment – debt security - 512,821
Total current assets 14,012,873 18,941,873
Resalable software license rights 48,752 58,882
Investment – debt security 452,821 -
Equipment and leasehold improvements, net 69,168 81,793
Capitalized contract costs, net 249,012 165,315
Deposits and other assets 8,712 8,712
Note receivable, net 113,000 -
Operating lease right-of-use assets 254,100 487,325
Intangible assets, net 1,298,077 1,514,146
Goodwill 1,262,526 1,262,526
Total non-current assets 3,756,168 3,578,699
TOTAL ASSETS $ 17,769,041 $ 22,520,572
LIABILITIES
Accounts payable $ 427,772 $ 244,158
Accrued liabilities 865,627 508,487
Note payable – PistolStar acquisition, net of debt discount - 232,000
Deferred revenue – current 565,355 657,349
Operating lease liabilities, current portion 177,188 234,309
Total current liabilities 2,035,942 1,876,303
Deferred revenue – long term 67,300 44,987
Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 86,974 264,163
Total non-current liabilities 154,274 309,150
TOTAL LIABILITIES 2,190,216 2,185,453
Commitments
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 7,814,572 and 1,812,483 of $.0001 par value at December 31, 2020 and December 31, 2019, respectively 786 782
Additional paid-in capital 120,153,509 119,844,026
Accumulated deficit (104,575,470 ) (99,509,689 )
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 15,578,825 20,335,119
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY $ 17,769,041 $ 22,520,572
All BIO-key shares issued and outstanding for all periods reflect BIO-key’s 1-for-8 reverse stock split, which was effective November 20, 2020.
DISCLAIMER
Nothing in the contents transmitted on this board should be construed as an investment advisory, nor should it be used to make investment decisions. There is no express or implied solicitation to buy or sell securities. The author(s) may have positions in the stocks or financial relationships with the company or companies discussed and may trade in the stocks mentioned. Readers are advised to conduct their own due diligence prior to considering buying or selling any stock. All information should be considered for information purposes only. No stock exchange has approved or disapproved of the information here.
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