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Insider Buying: SVP Strategy & Compliance James Sullivan Acquires 9,000 Shares of BIO-key International Inc
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GuruFocus Research
14 hours ago
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BKYI
?0.7%
On September 11, 2023, James Sullivan, the Senior Vice President of Strategy & Compliance at BIO-key International Inc (BKYI, Financial), purchased 9,000 shares of the company. This move is significant as it indicates the insider's confidence in the company's future prospects.
BIO-key International Inc is a leading provider of biometric identity and access management solutions. The company's innovative software and hardware solutions deliver strong, convenient security, and user-friendly functionality, enabling its customers to enhance productivity and reduce costs.
Over the past year, the insider has purchased a total of 17,618 shares and has not sold any shares. This trend suggests a strong belief in the company's potential for growth and profitability.
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The insider transaction history for BIO-key International Inc shows a total of 5 insider buys over the past year, with no insider sells. This trend indicates a positive sentiment among the company's insiders, which could be a bullish signal for investors.
On the day of the insider's recent buy, shares of BIO-key International Inc were trading at $0.53, giving the company a market cap of $4.746 million.
With a price of $0.53 and a GuruFocus Value of $3.02, BIO-key International Inc has a price-to-GF-Value ratio of 0.18. This suggests that the stock is a possible value trap, and investors should think twice before investing.
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The GF Value is an intrinsic value estimate developed by GuruFocus. It is calculated based on historical multiples (price-earnings ratio, price-sales ratio, price-book ratio, and price-to-free cash flow) that the stock has traded at, a GuruFocus adjustment factor based on the company’s past returns and growth, and future estimates of business performance from Morningstar analysts.
In conclusion, the insider's recent purchase of BIO-key International Inc shares could be a positive signal for the company's future prospects. However, given the stock's current price-to-GF-Value ratio, investors should exercise caution and conduct thorough research before making an investment decision
BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI) Share Price Passes Below 50 Day Moving Average of $0.66
Defense World StaffSep 12th, 2023
BIO-key International logoBIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI – Get Free Report)’s share price passed below its 50-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 50-day moving average of $0.66 and traded as low as $0.51. BIO-key International shares last traded at $0.53, with a volume of 26,813 shares changing hands.
BIO-key International Price Performance
The company has a current ratio of 1.36, a quick ratio of 0.66 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.07. The company has a market capitalization of $4.89 million, a P/E ratio of -0.47 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $0.66 and a 200 day moving average of $0.72.
BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Monday, August 14th. The technology company reported ($0.16) earnings per share for the quarter. The company had revenue of $1.93 million for the quarter. BIO-key International had a negative net margin of 117.65% and a negative return on equity of 122.43%.
About BIO-key International
(Get Free Report)
BIO-key International, Inc develops and markets fingerprint identification biometric technology and software solutions, and enterprise-ready identity access management solutions for commercial, government, and education customers in the United States and internationally. The company offers BIO-key PortalGuard and PortalGuard IDaaS solutions, a customer-controlled and neutral-by-design cloud-based identity platform that allows customers to integrate with any cloud or on-premises SaaS application, as well as windows device authentication through IAM platform.
$BKYI BIO-key International Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program to Elevate Biometric Security Solutions on AWS
https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2023/09/07/2739398/0/en/BIO-key-International-Joins-AWS-ISV-Accelerate-Program-to-Elevate-Biometric-Security-Solutions-on-AWS.html
WALL, N.J. and Herndon, Va., Sept. 07, 2023 (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), is proud to announce its acceptance into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for AWS Partners that provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. Having joined the AWS Partner Network in June of 2022, acceptance to the Accelerate Program marks a significant milestone in BIO-key's journey to provide advanced biometric security solutions on AWS.
As a member of this program, BIO-key will access a wide range of resources and benefits, including technical enablement, go-to-market support, and co-selling opportunities, allowing the company to deliver enhanced security offerings to AWS customers, globally.
BIO-key's biometric authentication solutions offer unparalleled security and convenience, leveraging unique biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, faces, palm scans, and more. With support from AWS, BIO-key aims to make its cutting-edge biometric technology easily accessible to businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, seeking to fortify their digital environments against ever-evolving cybersecurity threats.
"BIO-key is thrilled to be accepted into the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, which validates the strength of our biometric authentication solutions and our commitment to innovation in the field of cybersecurity," said Galen Rodgers, VP of Sales & Channel, BIO-key International. "Our work with AWS will help us to further enhance the security posture of organizations using AWS, providing a frictionless yet robust authentication experience for users."
As BIO-key works with AWS to continue expanding its reach and capabilities, both companies are committed to driving innovation and raising the bar for security solutions in the cloud computing landscape.
To learn more about the AWS ISV Accelerate program, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/partners/programs/isv-accelerate/.
BIO-key International Joins AWS ISV Accelerate Program to Elevate Biometric Security Solutions on AWS
Source: GlobeNewswire Inc.
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer identity and access management (IAM) solutions featuring Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB), is proud to announce its acceptance into the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Accelerate Program, a co-sell program for AWS Partners that provide software solutions that run on or integrate with AWS. Having joined the AWS Partner Network in June of 2022, acceptance to the Accelerate Program marks a significant milestone in BIO-key's journey to provide advanced biometric security solutions on AWS.
As a member of this program, BIO-key will access a wide range of resources and benefits, including technical enablement, go-to-market support, and co-selling opportunities, allowing the company to deliver enhanced security offerings to AWS customers, globally.
BIO-key's biometric authentication solutions offer unparalleled security and convenience, leveraging unique biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, faces, palm scans, and more. With support from AWS, BIO-key aims to make its cutting-edge biometric technology easily accessible to businesses of all sizes, from startups to enterprises, seeking to fortify their digital environments against ever-evolving cybersecurity threats.
"BIO-key is thrilled to be accepted into the AWS ISV Accelerate Program, which validates the strength of our biometric authentication solutions and our commitment to innovation in the field of cybersecurity," said Galen Rodgers, VP of Sales & Channel, BIO-key International. "Our work with AWS will help us to further enhance the security posture of organizations using AWS, providing a frictionless yet robust authentication experience for users."
As BIO-key works with AWS to continue expanding its reach and capabilities, both companies are committed to driving innovation and raising the bar for security solutions in the cloud computing landscape.
To learn more about the AWS ISV Accelerate program, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/partners/programs/isv-accelerate/.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions and customized on-premises 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 continue as a going concern; 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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-internationalTwitter – Corporate:@BIOkeyIntlTwitter – Investors:
@BIO_keyIRStockTwits:
BIO_keyIR
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Identity and Access Management Provider BIO-key to Participate at H.C. Wainwright Investment Conference in New York City, Sept. 11th & 12th
Online Presentation Available on Monday, Sept. 11th
NEW YORK and WALL, N.J., Aug. 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions will participate at H.C. Wainwright’s 25th Annual Global Investment Conference on Monday, September 11th and Tuesday, September 12th at the Lotte New York Palace Hotel in New York City. Bio-key’s CEO Mike DePasquale will be available for in-person investor meetings on Monday and Tuesday and for virtual meetings on Thursday Sept. 14th. BIO-key’s investor presentation will be available online throughout the conference, starting Monday, September 11th at 7:00 a.m. ET.
Please contact your H.C. Wainwright representative or Lily Khaykina at lk@hcwco.com to schedule a meeting.
H.C. Wainwright & Co., LLC is a full-service investment bank providing Investment Banking, Equity Research, Sales & Trading, Corporate Access and Strategic Advisory services. H.C. Wainwright’s 25th Annual Global Investment Conference will feature leading growth and technology companies from Monday, September 11th through Wednesday, September 13th.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) Q2 2023 Earnings Conference Call August 15, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
Bill Jones – Investor Relations
Mike DePasquale – Chairman and Chief Executive Officer
Ceci Welch – Chief Financial Officer
Conference Call Participants
Jack Vander Aarde – Maxim Group
Operator
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to BIO-key International Second Quarter 2023 Conference Call. During management’s prepared remarks all participants will be in listen-only mode. [Operator Instructions] As a reminder, this conference is being recorded today, Tuesday, August 15, 2023.
Now, I would like to turn the call over to Mr. Bill Jones, Investor Relations. Please proceed.
Bill Jones
Thank you, everyone, for joining today’s call. Participating here today are BIO-key’s Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale; and CFO, Ceci Welch.
As a reminder, today’s conference call and webcast as well as answers to investor questions include forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ from those currently expected. Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan, project or similar words, typically identify and express forward-looking statements. Such statements are made based on management’s beliefs and assumptions as of today, using information currently available pursuant to the Safe Harbor from liability provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
For a complete description of these and other risks that may affect future performance of the company, please see risk factors in the company’s annual report as filed on Form 10-K with the SEC. Listeners are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak as of today’s date only. BIO-key undertakes no obligation to revise or to disclose revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after today.
And now, let me pass the call to Mike to begin. Mike?
Mike DePasquale
Thanks, Bill. Good morning, and thank you, everyone, for taking time with us today. After my remarks, Ceci will review our financials, and then we will open the call to your questions. Although our Q2 revenues were roughly flat compared to Q2 2022, largely reflecting the timing of larger opportunities, our first half performance reflects growing demand for our unique set of identity and access management solutions.
Our first six months revenues rose 29%, reflecting solid progress in the growth in our software license and services revenue, which carry higher margins, and we were able to trim our net loss to $0.17 per share versus $0.34 per share in the year ago, first half.
Importantly, we are building a growing base of annual recurring revenue in key verticals, including healthcare, government and higher education, along with a robust pipeline of highly qualified large revenue opportunities that we expect to benefit our results in future periods. Our internal sales and marketing efforts have generated several significant IAM deployment prospects that we are working to advance to the contract stage. The scope and size of these projects typically involves longer sales cycles, so the timing is harder to predict. We believe BIO-key’s growing traction in the IAM space is a reflection of the strength of our flexible, scalable solutions and our leadership in identity bound biometrics.
Our suite of solutions offers a wide variety of multifactor authentication options to uniquely address customer mandates for password-less and phone-less authentication, and are opening up larger opportunities for our company. I said last quarter that we’ve done particularly well in generating larger enterprise leads at recent Gartner-hosted events, proving a number of quality sales engagements with target enterprise accounts.
Building on this direct sales effort, we also attended Identiverse in June and the NACo CIO Summit in July, and are planning to participate over the next few months in a number of security events along with our partners. We are confident that some of these larger scale opportunities should progress to formal deployments in the coming months, including a few that are already in proof-of-concept stages.
Complementing these efforts is our expanding base of global technical alliances and distribution partner relationships, which positioned BIO-key to participate in a much broader base of opportunities on a global basis. Key partners include Intelisys, which operates on a global basis and 3Eye, which is focused in the financial services and healthcare verticals.
In Q2, we added Savvy Info Tech in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country and one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Savvy provides Ethiopian banks and government institutions with digital and banking solutions, including end-to-end card personalization, data protection, identity and access management, payment switching, and fraud management services. We also forged the partnership with Pixel Infinito to bring our innovative IAM solutions to their customers across Angola.
We are also now officially in the AWS ISV Accelerate Program. You’ll hear more from us on that later this week or early next week, which is a very large and important ecosystem. This will provide access to all AWS financial services and healthcare selling teams. We are now working with the AWS network in Europe, the Middle East, and in Africa, helping customers to move their IAM deployments to the cloud for greater availability, scalability, resiliency, and reduced overhead costs. Working with AWS plays a critical role, particularly in this region. Due to the AWS Partner Network, we can now effectively extend the scope of marketing our sophisticated cloud-based IAM solutions worldwide through all of their sellers.
We also have a newer effort that is focused on building technical alliances with other leaders in the IAM industry, such as BeyondTrust, ForgeRock, Ping Identity and others. This strategy is designed to leverage our mutual strengths to enhance our ability to bring BIO-key solutions to our mutual customers. Through these companies, we are also – although these companies are also at times competitors, we have found ways to work together to identify and pursue significant new sales opportunities, some of which would be hard for us to pursue on our own.
As partner source sales opportunities are increasing, we are expanding engagement and awareness of integrated BIO-key capabilities with our Channel Alliance Partners. We initiated what we call BIO-key University for online training in BIO-key solutions in the second quarter. And the next phase of the platform is targeted for October release.
Our Q2 performance highlights included continuing traction with PortalGuard IDaaS in supporting existing healthcare company clients in their migration to the browser-based Epic Hyperdrive patient management solution by November 2023.
Recent deployments include the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Paulding Hospital and Dayton Children’s Hospital both in Ohio. These existing BIO-key biometric authentication customers are tapping the SAML capabilities of our PortalGuard IDaaS platform to leverage their existing use of our Identity-Bound Biometric solutions to provide strong authentication of healthcare personnel that are accessing shared workstation environments.
PortalGuard benefits our customers by letting them extend the value of our biometric solutions, while also avoiding user re-enrollment or the adoption of more cumbersome, expensive or shared multifactor authentication solutions. PortalGuard’s industry standard identity provider or IdP capabilities fully support Hyperdrive’s modern authentication approach.
Importantly, BIO-key’s unique identity bound biometric capabilities provide a personalized authentication solution that is both highly secure as well as frictionless for end users. Shared workstations which are common in healthcare, customer service centers, even in manufacturing and industrial centers provide security and access risks due to password token or card sharing. BIO-key’s IdP solutions address these vulnerabilities, supporting strong authentication capabilities in a cost effective manner, balancing strong security speed and convenience.
Turning to product. We recently completed the development of PortalGuard PG Desktop multifactor authentication for both Windows and Mac environments. We are currently redesigning our authentication engine and introducing certificate-based authentication to deliver an improved experience, also expected to be completed and released later this year. We also expanded PortalGuard’s support for managed service providers and introduced an enhanced IDaaS platform with infrastructure improvements and Linux support.
These are all part of continued efforts to build upon the value and functionality of our solutions, working to strengthen our internal sales effort we recently unified our sales and channel leadership under Galen Rodgers, to position our team for enhanced success in North America. New sales tactics are being deployed to enhance the quality and size of our engagements. We are starting to see progress in building our sales pipeline and improvements in sales forecasting, all benefiting from his guidance. Our goal is to grow our sales opportunity pipeline by 3x or three times in the second half of 2023.
We recently onboarded a new sales engineering resource, who comes to BIO-key with many years of experience, most recently from Okta. He brings a new level of refinement and structure to our sales engineering capabilities that will positively influence our ability to close direct sales and support our channel partners. Our marketing effort also continues to drive demand through channel and partner marketing, supported by the recent launch of our partner channel blog.
We are implementing account-based marketing, targeting larger commercial accounts and adjusting our process to incorporate channel marketing and partners. In summary, given our progress to date and the actions we have taken for the future, we remain confident that BIO-key is positioned to deliver significant top line and bottom line improvements in fiscal 2023. With those comments, I’ll now turn the call over to our CFO, Ceci Welch.
Ceci Welch
Thank you, Mike. First off, we expect to file our 10-Q this week and to remain fully up-to-date in our SEC filings. Turning to the recent quarter. Our Q2 revenues nearly matched those of Q2 2022, as growth in high-margin service and software license revenue more than offset the decline in hardware revenue. Growth in the service revenue was driven by customer deployments, migrations and expansions, including Swivel Secure customers in the EMEA region, as well as higher deployments in the U.S. higher education sector.
In the first six months of 2023, BIO-key’s revenues rose by 29% to $5 million compared to $3.9 million, also reflecting growth in service and license revenue, partially offset by a decline in hardware revenue. Gross profits grew 8% to $1.3 million in Q2 2023 versus Q2 2022, principally reflecting a gross margin increase of 69% versus 63% in Q2. Gross margin benefited from a larger percentage of higher-margin services and software revenue, as well as a decrease in third-party software costs due to regional software revenue, more than offsetting a year-over-year decrease in hardware revenue.
For the first six months, gross profit grew 27% to $3.6 million, again related to the growth in service and license fee revenue, partially offset by lower hardware revenue. Operating expenses decreased 10% to $2.5 million in Q2 2023 versus Q2 2022, due to an ongoing overhead reduction initiative, resulting in lower research and development expenses, as well as lower selling, general and administrative expenses. We are pursuing a number of overhead expense reduction initiatives aimed at improving our bottom line performance.
The completion of BIO-key’s MobileAuth application earlier this year helped to enable a decrease in R&D costs. The decrease in Q2 2023 SG&A costs reflects lower marketing personnel costs, offset by increased professional service fees related to regulatory filing delays. Given higher gross profit and lower operating costs, BIO-key was successful in trimming the net loss to $1.4 million or $0.16 per share in Q2 2023 compared to $1.7 million or $0.21 per share in Q2 2022.
Likewise, the first six months of 2023, we reduced our net loss to $1.7 million or $0.19 per share from $2.7 million or $0.34 per share in the first six months of 2022. BIO-key enabled Q2 – ended Q2 [ph] with current assets of $8.5 million, including $600 million of cash and $3.2 million of accounts receivable and $4.4 million of inventory. Our receivables are typically collected on normal terms of 30 to 90 days.
In terms of inventory, some of the excess inventory that we have purchased to avoid supply chain concerns and in anticipation of ramping requirements related to the civil ID projects in Africa, is slowly being sold and liquidated to further strengthen our financial position. That concludes our prepared remarks. And now we will turn the call to the operator to begin Q&A.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Good morning guys. Thanks for taking my questions. So Michael, you mentioned some great stats at the pipeline in your prepared remarks, and I think, I just missed some of that, can you – I think you had some quantifiable pipeline remarks. Can you just remind me of what you said?
Mike DePasquale
Yes, I said that our goal and objective is to increase our pipeline size by a factor of 3x in the second half of 2023. And most of that is happening as a result of two factors. Number one, our partner program is exploding. And we, through, again, as I mentioned, AWS and other more strategic players are going to increase our deal flow and in particular, our partner sourced deal flow right, that they bring to the table. So that’s one.
The second is, what I mentioned, not just on this call but on our last call, that we’ve been very successful in creating a number of larger opportunity pipeline inputs from the Gartner events that we attended. So these are much larger customers that have very large populations of employees and customers that are interested in our IBB and our general PortalGuard IDaaS solutions. So that’s how we’re going to grow our pipeline. That is how our pipeline is going to expand and that’s going to continue to grow as we evolve through the second half and into 2024.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. And that goal though was to increase the pipeline by about 3x in the back half?
Mike DePasquale
Correct. Correct. That’s triple our pipeline. So that’s pretty significant, and we could never do that with I’ll call it, a handful of sales resources that we have. That is clearly – it’s been our goal and objective for the last year to 1.5 years, to really pushing the majority of our business to get it sourced and then to push for fulfillment through our partner network, and that’s really starting to expand.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. And then let me ask a question on the quarter itself. The second quarter itself, I am still – I guess, I’m struggling to still understand why your recurring revenue is flat year-over-year relatively if you’re seeing such increased demand and you’re adding new customers, are you giving pricing discounts? Is it just a lumpiness in the business? I know one of the – like a – or you had one customer account or contract. I think it was like $0.3 million, maybe – maybe slipped, but just help me understand that. When can we see more of a meaningful ramp – in more of a smooth growth ramp going forward? Thank you.
Mike DePasquale
Yes. Well, first of all, again the bulk of our business is recurring revenue. So we still do have some legacy customers that buy license from us. But the bulk of our business has really evolved to recurring revenue. And that’s a combination of – on the legacy side, customers that are paying maintenance, right? But its contracted maintenance as well as new sales that are subscription based. So that is our model. And clearly, again, short of some of those legacy customers, that’s what we’re doing. That’s what we sell.
In the context of this quarter, our business was flat year-over-year for that one customer, that’s the Defense Ministry customer, which was about a $350,000 order, they wanted to negotiate a longer-term arrangement, a multiyear arrangement. So it took a few extra weeks to do that. But if that has fallen on the June side of the quarter, we would have grew about 15% or so. And on a year-over-year basis, we would have been somewhere around 35% or so instead of the 29% that we’re at right now.
Clearly, our business is growing, and it’s ramping. You’re going to see it again happened because of two things. Our commercial business, our small and medium-sized opportunities sourced through partners and fulfilled through partners is going to grow. And then the larger, more strategic opportunities, as I described, which are harder to predict in the context of timing, they will have a big impact on our business.
So for example, when you’re working a large opportunity that could be anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million or more in ARR, right? That’s recurring subscription revenue. When you close that in that quarter, it’s going to have a big impact on top of the contracted base we have. And so it’s – we’re close, but we still have work to do to get both of those engines, the partner engine and close down on some of those larger strategic deals to begin to see more, I’ll call it, more significant growth and more consistent growth.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. Great. And then just to that point, let me ask one more thing and then I’ll switch gears. But – so, I guess, what I want to understand is, what you mean by significant top-line growth? Because I think investors lined up when you talk about your outlook, what is – what do you mean by significant top-line and bottom line improvement? So if I look at year-to-date – year-to-date, Michael, your revenue is up 29% for the first six months of the year, it looks like.
Mike DePasquale
That’s right.
Jack Vander Aarde
So is 29% year-to-date, is that where you consider significant? Just help us understand just to get a sense of what the back half of the year could look like based on your kind of informal guidance commentary?
Mike DePasquale
Well, again, we’re not providing guidance. And I could have provided guidance at the beginning of the year and said, look, we’re going to do x over. We did about $7 million last year, what is the number going to be? I’ve been very cautious about that because we’re trying to be – first of all, it’s very difficult for us to be ultra predictable while we’re in this transition to our partner and our new strategic kind of sales focus. It’s very, very difficult because of the timing. The larger deals with larger companies tend to – tend to take on a life of their own. Sometimes they slip, sometimes they just require six months or nine months of selling cycle. So it’s very difficult to predict.
So, I’ve been very cautious about that. I did not want to paint the number that the company will not be able to achieve. But I will say this, we have grown annually each of the last two years into this year, and we’re going to grow significantly this year again. And I hope and we believe it’s going to be well north of where we are today. The third quarter, as you know, is generally our slowest quarter because of our business in Europe, which – as you know, Europe is fundamentally closed in July and August. But we believe this quarter will be a very solid quarter, and we will have by the end of the year, by the fourth quarter, that partner engine really humming and some of these strategic deals landed. And so significant is – significant is significant. Let’s put it this way, more than we’ve grown in the last two years.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. That’s helpful. That’s helpful. I appreciate the added color there. And just your comment on third quarter, seasonally slower because of the European business and the nature of that. That makes sense. But would it – do you expect the third quarter to be up year-over-year since it’s against another seasonally slow period last year in the third quarter?
Mike DePasquale
Yes, we do. And keep in mind, we have that $350,000 order slip into Q3. So we kind of came over the transom with an advantage. So yes, I think it’s safe to say, we believe that, yes.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, great. And then just one more question per usual. My favorite question is because it’s such a material opportunity, can you just give us an update again on the two original large after contracts, and if and when we could see any sign of meaningful revenue recognition from those? Thanks.
Mike DePasquale
Thanks. Great. Good question. As you know, we came into the year and we totally discounted any business or revenue from Africa from those contracts. We did that because the delays have just been incredible, right? We’ve been dragging these for two, 2.5 years. They are still alive and the business is clearly still alive. There’s – in particular in Nigeria, there’s a new President that’s taken over and there’s a renewed focus including from the World Bank now that they’ve developed a new data privacy commission, and they’re starting to put a lot of thought into the identity ecosystem to bring people out of poverty, not just in Nigeria, but across Africa.
So we’re hopeful. We still have and maintain I’ll call it resource there to focus on that and to stay on top of things. But once the money flows, we’ll be there and we’ll be able to take advantage of the investment that we’ve made over the last couple of years. But it’s – it is – it remains a very, very difficult environment. And I think, although we’re optimistic that may change, it’s not factored into our numbers this year.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. That’s helpful. And then if I may just try to probe again not factored in your numbers this year, it’s very difficult to get visibility into it I understand. Is there based on where you see things today, is there line of sight though, or opportunity for these two start moving forward in 2024?
Mike DePasquale
Actually there is, and hopefully before the end of 2023. But we have an initiative underway in the payment space that is commercial. So it’s not directly related in any way to the government, which again, it is an opportunity to create revenue flow and margin and profit for us in a commercial business there, which it is the – I’ll call it the largest emerging market in the world and everybody wants to be there. But it takes a lot of staying power and it takes a lot of time, energy to generate meaningful revenue. But I do believe that it can happen before the end of the year and certainly into 2024.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, great.
Mike DePasquale
And one other comment that…
Jack Vander Aarde
Yes, go ahead.
Mike DePasquale
And one other comments I just want to make, I think in my prepared remarks, I talked about a couple of partners that we had brought on board. So we also are very focused, and not just again in Nigeria, but in Angola and Ethiopia working with partners who have the cultural business experience and who have the connections in the industries that have money and can spend money not just again the government. That’s also our target and our goal. And we signed three or so really, really good partners just in the last quarter who are going to help take BIO-key solutions into that market. So that’s another way for us to leverage ourselves in Africa.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. I appreciate the added color. That’s it for me. Thanks, Michael.
Mike DePasquale
You’re welcome.
Operator
At this time showing no further questions, the Q&A session has ended. I’ll now ask Mike DePasquale for any closing remarks.
Mike DePasquale
Thank you everyone for joining us today. We look forward to updating you on future updated calls. And we expect to attend two conferences this fall in New York. Specifically, we expect to participate at the H.C. Wainwright Conference in September and the [indiscernible] Conference in October. Please reach out to your representative there or our IR team whose contact information is in today’s press release for details. We’ll update you again on our Q3 call in November. And as always, we’ll provide interim news updates via press release. Again, thank you for your time this morning and have a great day.
Operator
The conference is now concluded. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.
WALL, N.J. , Aug. 14, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today reported results for its second quarter ended June 30, 2023 (Q2’23). BIO-key will host an investor call tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. ET (details below) to review its results and outlook.
Highlights:
Q2’23 revenues of $1.9M approximated Q2’22 revenue of $1.9M, despite delays in the closing of certain larger customer opportunities, including a $0.3M defense ministry order signed in early Q3’23. Revenue rose 29% in the first six months of FY’23 over the prior-year period, due to a record start in Q1’23.
Continued PortalGuard IDaaS Traction Supporting Healthcare Migrations to Epic Hyperdrive, including Dayton Children’s Hospital, University of Iowa Hospitals and clinics, and Paulding, Ohio Hospital.
Growing customer footprint across geographies and markets, including in Florida, Ohio, and Maine, particularly in higher education and other migrations to our cloud solution PortalGuard® IDaaS.
Expanding global distribution partner network, including Savvy Info Tech, the AWS Partner Network, and Pixel Infinito, in large, growing markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA).
BIO-key remains positioned to deliver significant top-line growth and bottom-line improvements for the full fiscal 2023 year.
CEO Commentary
BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale commented, “While Q2’23 revenues were roughly flat compared to Q2’22, related principally to the timing of larger opportunities, our first half performance demonstrates growing demand for our unique set of IAM solutions, supported by our industry leadership in Identity-Bound Biometrics. Our first six months revenues rose 29% and we were able to trim our net loss from a year ago.
“Importantly, we have developed a robust pipeline of highly qualified, large revenue opportunities and a growing base of annual recurring revenue in key verticals, including government and higher education, which we expect will generate positive results in the coming quarters and years. Our internal sales and marketing efforts have generated several significant IAM deployment prospects that we are working to advance to the contract stage. However, the size and scope of these projects makes it more difficult to predict the timing of the customer decision making process. Complementing these efforts is our expanding network of global distribution partners which positions BIO-key to pursue a much broader base of opportunities both in the US and abroad.
“We also continue to expand the adoption of PortalGuard IDaaS to support healthcare customers as they migrate to Epic’s browser-based Hyperdrive solution. Longstanding customers, Dayton’s Children’s Hospital and the University of Iowa Hospitals and clinics, added BIO-key’s PortalGuard IDaaS® platform to leverage their existing BIO-key biometric authentication investment as they transitioned from Epic Systems’ legacy Hyperspace application to the new browser-based Hyperdrive interface. Our biometric authentications technology provides an ideal security and authentication solution for the healthcare industry which must comply with stringent HIPAA requirements to protect patient data accessed via shared workstations and mobile devices. We believe these successful deployments provide excellent case studies for other providers required to migrate to Epic Hyperdrive over the next few months.
Outlook
“Based on customer dialogues, we understand that most organizations recognize the need to deploy more secure, efficient, and passwordless identity and access management solutions to support hybrid user environments. We have positioned BIO-key to meet this growing need with convenient, scalable and cost-effective IAM solutions, including a broad range of multi-factor and identity-bound biometric capabilities. We are excited by the progress we have made in building our base of customers and annual recurring revenue, and believe BIO-key has a strong foundation for growth and improving bottom-line performance.
“Reflecting progress to date, a growing pipeline of customer opportunities, and our expanding global partner network, we remain confident that BIO-key is positioned to deliver significant top-line growth and bottom-line improvements in FY 2023.”
Financial Results
Please note that the review of our Q2 FY2023 financial statements has not been completed as of the date of this press release and the financial statements and financial information provided below have not been finalized and are subject to change.
Q2’23 revenues of $1.9M were nearly level with Q2’22, reflecting growth in higher-margin service and software license revenue, offsetting lower hardware revenue. Q2’23 service revenue was driven by custom service installations for new and existing customer deployments and upgrades. License revenue increased due to the addition of Swivel Secure customers in the EMEA region and PortalGuard customers, primarily in the U.S. higher education market. For the first six months of 2023, total revenues rose 29% to $5.9M compared to $3.0M, also reflecting growth in service and license revenue and a decline in hardware revenue.
Gross profit grew 8% to $1.3M in Q2’23 from $1.2M in Q2’22, reflecting an increase in gross margin to 69% from 63% in Q2’22. Gross profit and gross margin benefitted from a year-over-year increase in higher margin services and software license revenue and a decrease in third-party software costs, due to the mix in product licenses issued.
Q2’23 operating expenses decreased over 10% to $2.5 million from $2.8 million in Q2’22, due primarily to lower research and development expenses, as well as lower selling, general and administrative expenses. The completion of BIO-key’s Mobile Auth application contributed to the decrease in research and development costs. The modest decrease in Q2’23 SG&A costs reflected lower marketing personnel costs, partially offset by increased professional services fees related to regulatory filing delays. BIO-key continues to undertake a number of expense reduction initiatives designed to reduce overhead expenses in future periods.
Reflecting higher gross profit and lower operating costs, BIO-key trimmed its Q2’23 net loss to $1.4M, as compared to $1.7M in Q2’22. Similarly, for the first six months of 2023 compared to 2022, the Company reduced its net loss to $1.7 million from $2.7 million.
At June 30, 2023, BIO-key had current assets of $8.5M, including $0.6M of cash and cash equivalents, $3.2M of accounts receivable, and $4.4M of inventory.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Today, Tuesday August 15th at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 2616534
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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 continue as a going concern; 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS AND COMPREHENSIVE LOSS
(Unaudited)
Three Months Ended Six Months Ended
June 30, June 30,
2023 2022 2023 2022
Revenues
Services $ 620,465 $ 435,106 $ 1,152,987 $ 830,910
License fees 1,235,771 1,162,148 3,714,327 2,622,331
Hardware 72,693 349,861 145,382 435,045
Total revenues 1,928,929 1,947,115 5,012,696 3,888,286
Costs and other expenses
Cost of services 360,156 180,677 514,957 391,590
Cost of license fees 198,147 358,136 819,028 431,366
Cost of hardware 47,808 185,140 92,400 238,438
Total costs and other expenses 606,111 723,953 1,426,385 1,061,394
Gross profit 1,322,818 1,223,162 3,586,311 2,826,892
Operating Expenses
Selling, general and administrative 1,943,164 2,006,573 3,874,896 3,804,571
Research, development and engineering 558,181 784,083 1,248,341 1,589,349
Total Operating Expenses 2,501,345 2,790,656 5,123,237 5,393,920
Operating loss (1,178,527 ) (1,567,494 ) (1,536,926 ) (2,567,028 )
Other income (expense)
Interest income 23 77 27 208
Loss on foreign currency transactions - - (15,000 ) -
Investment-debt security reserve - (150,000 ) - (150,000 )
Change in fair value of convertible note (44,568 ) - 97,423 -
Interest expense (56,806 ) (1,540 ) (113,724 ) (1,540 )
Total other income (expense), net (101,351 ) (151,463 ) (31,274 ) (151,332 )
Loss before provision for income tax $ (1,279,878 ) $ (1,718,957 ) $ (1,568,200 ) $ (2,718,360 )
Provision for income tax (143,000 ) - (143,000 ) -
Net loss $ (1,422,878 ) $ (1,718,957 ) $ (1,711,200 ) $ (2,718,360 )
Comprehensive loss:
Net loss $ (1,422,878 ) $ (1,718,957 ) $ (1,711,200 ) $ (2,718,360 )
Other comprehensive loss – Foreign currency translation adjustment 19,884 (165,883 ) 92,030 (110,081 )
Comprehensive loss $ (1,402,994 ) $ (1,884,840 ) $ (1,619,170 ) $ (2,828,441 )
Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share $ (0.16 ) $ (0.21 ) $ (0.19 ) $ (0.34 )
Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding:
Basic and diluted 9,021,426 8,098,020 9,008,631 7,992,102
Please note that the review of our Q2 FY2023 financial statements has not been completed as of the date of this press release and the financial statements and financial information provided below have not been finalized and are subject to change.
BIO-KEY INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
June 30, December 31,
2023 2022
(Unaudited)
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 565,513 $ 2,635,522
Accounts receivable, net 3,178,785 1,522,784
Due from factor 74,250 49,500
Inventory 4,384,098 4,434,369
Prepaid expenses and other 328,684 342,706
Total current assets 8,531,330 8,984,881
Equipment and leasehold improvements, net 81,053 107,413
Capitalized contract costs, net 277,448 283,069
Deposits and other assets 8,712 8,712
Operating lease right-of-use assets 84,610 197,355
Intangible assets, net 1,600,092 1,762,825
Total non-current assets 2,051,915 2,359,374
TOTAL ASSETS $ 10,583,245 $ 11,344,255
LIABILITIES
Accounts payable $ 1,855,988 $ 1,108,279
Accrued liabilities 900,924 1,009,123
Income taxes payable 156,000 -
Convertible note payable 2,498,780 2,596,203
Government loan – BBVA Bank, current portion 135,308 120,000
Deferred revenue, current 651,709 462,418
Operating lease liabilities, current portion 77,379 159,665
Total current liabilities 6,276,088 5,455,688
Deferred revenue, long term 37,280 52,134
Deferred tax liability 159,997 170,281
Government loan – BBVA Bank – net of current portion 255,219 326,767
Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 9,570 37,829
Total non-current liabilities 462,066 587,011
TOTAL LIABILITIES 6,738,154 6,042,699
Commitments and Contingencies
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 9,262,853 and 9,190,504 of $.0001 par value at June 30, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively 926 919
Additional paid-in capital 122,191,310 122,028,612
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (150,572 ) (242,602 )
Accumulated deficit (118,196,573 ) (116,485,373 )
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 3,845,091 5,301,556
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY $ 10,583,245 $ 11,344,255
Please note that the review of our Q2 FY2023 financial statements has not been completed as of the date of this press release and the financial statements and financial information provided below have not been finalized and are subject to change.
WALL, N.J., Aug. 07, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will host its second quarter investor conference call, Tuesday, August 15th at 10 a.m. ET. Results will be released after the market closes on Monday. Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO and Cecilia Welch, CFO will lead the call and Q&A session.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Tuesday, August 15th at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 2616534
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Paulding Ohio Hospital Deploys BIO-key’s PortalGuard® Cloud Platform to Manage Identity-Bound Biometric Authentication for Epic Hyperdrive
PAULDING, Ohio and WALL, N.J., July 12, 2023 (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), announced that longstanding customer Paulding County Hospital (PCH) is deploying BIO-key’s PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) cloud platform to leverage its existing investment in BIO-key’s biometric authentication solution as it migrates to Epic Hyperdrive. The new browser-based Epic Hyperdrive electronic health records system is replacing Epic’s legacy Hyperspace application.
Recognizing the importance of efficient and secure access to critical healthcare applications, PCH is deploying PortalGuard IDaaS in conjunction with Epic Hyperdrive to extend its use of BIO-key’s biometric authentication capabilities to ensure strict compliance with patient privacy regulations such as HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) in the cloud. By deploying PortalGuard with BIO-key biometrics, PCH avoids system-wide user re-enrollment or the adoption of more cumbersome, expensive, or less secure shared authentication solutions. In addition, PortalGuard’s SAML-based Single Sign-On (SSO) Identity Provider capabilities will deliver secure, streamlined, multi-factor authentication for other hospital software applications. Driving the PCH project timeline is the Epic requirement that their customers migrate to Hyperdrive by the November 2023 release deadline.
"Implementing PortalGuard SAML SSO with their mission-critical application Epic Hyperdrive allows PCH to streamline their workflows, reduce administrative burdens, and ensure secure access to patient information with IBB,” said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. “Where security and efficiency are paramount, healthcare organizations face the challenge of providing convenient and reliable access to necessary systems while ensuring data privacy and regulatory compliance. Our IBB solution is revolutionizing biometric authentication in healthcare, providing organizations with flexible, secure, and cost-effective access management solutions by reducing or eliminating reliance on expensive tokens or card-based systems while also maintaining the highest levels of security.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Customers in Florida and Illinois Migrate Their Identity and Access Management to the Cloud with PortalGuard® IDaaS
WALL, N.J., July 10, 2023 (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), announced that existing customers West Aurora School District 129 in Aurora, IL and Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, FL are migrating to BIO-key’s PortalGuard® IDaaS cloud-based identity management solution, a significant step in modernizing their IAM capabilities. By adopting IDaaS, West Aurora and Gulf Coast can centralize and streamline their identity management processes while taking advantage of cloud scalability, flexibility, and security while providing an enhanced user experience - all with improved administrative capabilities.
In today's digital landscape, where secure access to educational resources is crucial, West Aurora and Gulf Coast recognized the need for a comprehensive IAM solution. By partnering with BIO-key, the school district and college aim to streamline and enhance how they manage user identities and access privileges. The PortalGuard IDaaS platform brings multiple benefits to West Aurora and Gulf Coast, including Single Sign-On (SSO) functionality so students, faculty, and staff can enjoy a seamless login experience across multiple applications and systems, eliminating the hassle of remembering multiple passwords. Further, implementing robust Multi-factor Authentication (MFA) ensures an additional layer of security, safeguarding sensitive educational data from unauthorized access. West Aurora and Gulf Coast end users can leverage seventeen authentication methods, including SMS-based codes, push notifications, biometrics, and hardware tokens, to add an extra layer of security for access to digital resources.
By migrating to the PortalGuard IDaaS platform, West Aurora and Gulf Coast are embracing cloud integration, enabling seamless management of identities across their hybrid environments which combine on-premises resources and cloud-based services. PortalGuard ensures consistent identity management practices and a unified user experience across various platforms. West Aurora and Gulf Coast will also benefit from the scalability and flexibility offered by the PortalGuard IDaaS platform which can effortlessly accommodate changing user populations, increased application usage, and future expansion.
"We are thrilled to support our customers’ migration to the PortalGuard IDaaS platform," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "Our growing base of education customer migrations to IDaaS underscore BIO-key’s commitment to providing secure, and seamless access to educational resources for all students, faculty, and staff. By modernizing our customers’ IAM capabilities we help then ensure \\ a safe and productive digital learning environment."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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:
LinkedIn – Corporate:
Twitter – Corporate:
Twitter – Investors:StockTwits: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
@BIOkeyIntl
@BIO_keyIRBIO_keyIR
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Entry into a Material Definitive Agreement.
On June 22, 2023, BIO-key International, Inc. (the “Company,” “we” or “us”) entered into a Waiver and Amendment No. 1 to Securities Purchase Agreement (the “Amendment”) with AJB Capital Investments, LLC (the “Investor”). The Amendment amended certain provisions of the Securities Purchase Agreement dated December 22, 2022 (the “Original Agreement”) entered into between the Company and Investor which provided for, among other things, the issuance of a $2,200,000 principal amount senior secured promissory note (the “Note”) to the Investor.
In connection with the issuance of the Note, the Company issued 700,000 shares of common stock (the “Commitment Shares”) to the Investor. In the event that the Note was paid in full within six months after the date of issuance, the Company had the right to repurchase 350,000 of the Commitment Shares for aggregate payment to the Investor of $1.00. The Amendment provides for the Company to repurchase up to 272,000 of the Commitment Shares in the event that the Company makes a principal payment on or before July 22, 2023 and to repurchase up to 214,000 of the Commitment Shares in the event that the Company makes a principal payment after July 22, 2023 and before August 21, 2023, in each case, for aggregate payment to the Investor of $1.00. The number of Commitment Shares subject to repurchase is based on the amount of the principal payments made by the Company.
The Amendment also waived certain prior events of default in connection with the Company’s failure to timely make certain filings with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.
The foregoing descriptions of the Amendment and the Original Agreement do not purport to be complete and are qualified in their entirety by reference to the complete text of such agreements, copies of which are filed as Exhibit 10.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and Exhibit 10.1 to the Company’s Current Report on Form 8-K dated December 22, 2022, respectively.
Johnston Community College Deepens Partnership with BIO-key, Implementing its PortalGuard® IDaaS Identity and Access Management Cloud Solution to Meet New Digital Transformation Goals
SMITHFIELD, N.C. and WALL, N.J., June 26, 2023 (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), announced that existing customer Johnston Community College (JCC) elected to migrate to BIO-key’s PortalGuard® IDaaS cloud-based platform to improve agility, security, and efficiency that comes from being able to leverage a single pane of glass to secure their entire IT environment. PortalGuard IDaaS provides IAM security regardless of where a user is signing in from and flexible integration options to support all types of access scenarios for both cloud-based and on-premises applications.
Johnston Community College has been utilizing PortalGuard’s on-premises solution since 2018. In recent years, higher educational institutions like JCC have been increasing the number of digital learning formats for students, so connecting securely to cloud-based systems is an essential element within a safe and supportive learning environment. PortalGuard significantly improved end-user access by providing secure single sign-on using SAML and CAS (Central Authentication Service) protocols for applications, including Microsoft 365, Blackboard, ExamSoft, Trac Cloud, Omni CMS, Anthology, and Explorance Blue, among others. In addition, PortalGuard offers the college’s approximately 5,000 users an enhanced user experience with flexible multi-factor authentication options for secure access to institutional applications and data.
"PortalGuard IDaaS has experienced rapid growth from new and existing customers across multiple industries, including education, healthcare, manufacturing, finance, and government," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "Higher Education institutions are seeking security experts like BIO-key to accelerate their ability to execute strategic security initiatives and meet their digital transformation goals. The PortalGuard IDaaS platform enables IT teams to meet end-user demands for access personalization and convenience while cost-effectively addressing the ever-evolving challenges of cybersecurity threats."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Quirk Auto Group selects BIO-key’s PortalGuard® Cloud Solution to Meet Updated GLBA Act Safeguards Rule Requirements to Protect Consumer Data
Quirk consolidated IAM solutions around PortalGuard, enhancing cybersecurity capabilities and login experience
BANGOR, Maine and WALL, N.J., June 20, 2023 (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), announced that Quirk Auto Group, with 19 locations in Maine, has selected BIO-key’s PortalGuard® IDaaS platform to address updated requirements dictated by the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) Safeguards Rule, designed to protect the personal data of consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission recently made important changes to the Safeguards Rule, bringing the GLBA in line with much more stringent security frameworks. BIO-key’s PortalGuard platform supports these updated rules with a modern approach for securing access to systems and data through its IBB, multi-factor authentication (MFA), and industry-standard SAML Identity Provider (IdP) capabilities. One of the key project outcomes was identity and access management security and integration with the enterprise application Reynolds and Reynolds for enhanced corporate and consumer data protection. The PortalGuard platform provided an additional benefit for Quirk Auto Group by enabling it to consolidate IAM technologies and vendors, improving the user login experience while simultaneously increasing its overall cybersecurity capabilities.
"Properly managing identity and access is a critical component of good cybersecurity. The piece that’s easy to overlook is consolidating security tools to improve your security posture," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "As organizations scale and/or have new compliance requirements to address, they often pick up additional solutions to address their needs. Suddenly, their original security solution is a tangle of overlapping policies, vendors, and authentication methods – unnecessarily reducing end-user satisfaction and burdening the IT team. Consolidating solutions is the best way to present a simple and complete solution that makes users happy while maintaining the robust security your organization will depend on for years to come. This is the essence of what we deliver with PortalGuard."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Regains Compliance with Nasdaq Rule Requiring Timely Filing of Periodic Financial Reports Following Filing of its Q1’23 Form 10-Q with SEC
WALL, N.J., June 13, 2023 (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), announced today that following the filing of its Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023, The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC has informed the Company that it has regained compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1) which requires the timely filing of all required periodic financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The Company’s Form 10-Q filing was delayed because the compilation and review of certain financial information could not be completed within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort and expense.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key’s patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Enhances PortalGuard IDaaS Admin Panel to Better Serve MSPs and MSSPs
“Single pane of glass” interface aggregates data and visualizations across multiple customers and instances.
WALL, N.J., June 13, 2023 (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 a significant update to the Admin Panel of PortalGuard® IDaaS (Identity-as-a-Service) – a unified IAM platform that provides cutting-edge solutions to a range of use cases and business initiatives. This update provides enhanced support for MSPs (Managed Services Providers) and MSSPs (Managed Security Services Providers) to enhance their authentication and operational efficiency, enabling the best service possible for their customers.
“The PortalGuard IDaaS Admin Panel provides a simple administrator experience to efficiently manage users, control SSO integrations, configure security policies and more, all in one place,” said Gregg Browinski, VP of Engineering, BIO-key – PortalGuard. “We believe our updated ‘single pane of glass’ approach will support MSPs and MSSPs to take major strides in their cybersecurity – like implementing a zero-trust model or passwordless authentication within the Platform.”
The enhanced PortalGuard IDaaS Admin Panel should enable admins and IT users within MSPs and MSSPs to save time, reduce costs, and get the most out of their resources in three core areas:
Workflow Efficiency: manage all associated organizations from one consolidated interface, optimizing resource usage and operational efficiency.
Available from anywhere – can be accessed from any web browser on any device, desktop or mobile, and remote access.
Enhanced Admin Panel allows MSPs and MSSPs to put resources where they matter most, waste less time managing infrastructure, and reduce overall downtime.
Use Case Flexibility: experience unparalleled flexibility across the entire organization and a centrally configured deployment point.
Granular insight into organizations’ departments and respective usage (e.g., Human Resources department using tokens).
View and modify each organizational configuration from a single login point.
Reduced downtime response and quick identification of potential issues.
Resource & Cost Management: manage license usage and organizational subsidiary projects to manage and determine deployment costs accurately.
Monitor customer usage metrics with the capability to filter data by customer(s), date range, and time unit (daily or monthly).
Tailor licenses according to specific projects/usage.
Allowance of internal monetization of global licenses promotes greater revenue by enabling subsidiaries to determine their costs.
Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key PortalGuard, concluded, “with PortalGuard, organizations can enjoy better authentication flexibility, an enhanced user experience, and lower total cost of ownership. BIO-key is confident that these upgrades to the core features and capabilities of its PortalGuard IDaaS are difference-makers for the platform, making it a premier product to support MSPs and MSSPs.”
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Partners with Savvy Info. Tech to Offer Powerful Identity and Access Management Solutions in Ethiopia’s Fast-Growing Economy
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia and WALL, N.J., June 12, 2023 (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 partnership with Savvy Information Technology to bring BIO-key solutions to customers in Ethiopia. The Savvy partnership expands the global reach of BIO-key’s Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) within Ethiopia, Africa's second most populous country and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world.
Savvy Info. Tech has been providing banks and government institutions in Ethiopia with digital and banking solutions for the last ten years. Savvy solutions include end-to-end card personalization, data protection, identity and access management, payment switching, and fraud management. These solutions have positioned Savvy as a financial institution trustee, and as such, Savvy also offers services, technical support, and training at its state-of-the-art training and customer service centers in Addis Ababa.
BIO-key continues to expand its distribution reach into high-growth international markets by working with leading regional partners. The CAP program makes it easy for partners to build new revenue channels by offering BIO-key’s full line of solutions and multifactor authentication options. BIO-key solutions include its award-winning PortalGuard® platform and hardware solutions including fingerprint scanners, which support Identity-Bound Biometric authentication, and FIDO-key® security keys.
“Savvy and our clients have a wonderful chance with this relationship. Which enables us to offer the best IAM and biometric solutions to the numerous local institutions that need such services,” said Etsub Tasew, Savvy’s General Manager.
José Francês, BIO-key’s VP of Sales for Africa, Europe, and Brazil said, “We excited to partner with Savvy to bring BIO-key’s IAM added value solutions to their customers across Ethiopia.”
About Savvy Information Technology (https://savvyet.com)
Savvy Info. Tech was founded in 2013 G.C. in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Savvy is a local leader in Digital solutions across the Banking and Governmental institutions. We have witnessed significant industry advancements throughout that time, taken part in them, and learnt a lot about how they affect other sectors of the economy. We understand the importance of a strong financial industry as well as the role it plays in an economy which is why we take pride in pushing the financial industry and Governmental institutions toward digitalization. We have collaborated with leading experts, international businesses, and institutions to provide the best technology to equip these institutions for the digitized future.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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:
LinkedIn – Corporate:
Twitter – Corporate:
Twitter – Investors:
StockTwits: https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
@BIOkeyIntl
@BIO_keyIR
BIO_keyIR
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Secure Access to Epic Hyperdrive with BIO-key PortalGuard® and Identity-Bound Biometrics
WALL, N.J., June 08, 2023 (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), announced that its longstanding customer University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics (UIHC) would add BIO-key’s PortalGuard® platform to expand its existing BIO-key biometric authentication investment as it migrates from Epic Systems’ legacy Hyperspace application to the new browser-based Hyperdrive interface.
UIHC is integrating PortalGuard with Epic Hyperdrive to provide SAML SSO (Single Sign-on) capabilities that leverage their current BIO-key biometric authentication deployment and to avoid user re-enrollment or the adoption of more cumbersome, expensive, or shared multi-factor authentication solutions. Driving the UIHC project timeline is the Epic requirement that customers migrate to Hyperdrive by the November 2023 release deadline.
BIO-key’s PortalGuard platform fully supports Hyperdrive’s modern authentication approach through its industry-standard SAML Identity Provider (IdP) capabilities. PortalGuard provided the required integration with Hyperdrive while allowing UIHC users to enjoy BIO-key’s secure and streamlined biometric authentication user experience. Additionally, UIHC could gain additional value by leveraging PortalGuard as its IdP and therefore use biometric authentication for integrated SAML, OAuth, and OpenID Connect options to extend security benefits to other hospital applications.
"Like most of BIO-key’s other healthcare customers, UIHC uses Epic as a mission-critical application," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "Our customers require the security and convenience of BIO-key’s unique IBB capabilities to create a long-lasting, personalized biometric authentication experience that users prefer over phones or tokens. We all know that shared workstations are common in healthcare, yet most competitive solutions do not address them effectively, resulting in potential vulnerabilities due to token or card sharing for the sake of expediency. Our IBB solution balances security and convenience to deliver a cost-effective, robust authentication experience that users enjoy with the security that healthcare providers require."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Leverages AWS Partner Network to Build Identity and Access Management (IAM) Solutions in Europe, the Middle East and Africa
WALL, N.J. and MADRID, Spain, June 05, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) Partner Network member since 2022, today announced that it is helping customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to move their IAM strategies to the cloud for greater availability, scalability, resiliency, and reduced overhead.
BIO-key offers advanced cybersecurity solutions, including multifactor authentication options for enhanced login security, to securely and flexibly manage identity for AWS customers and partners. BIO-key solutions include its PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform along with hardware such as fingerprint scanners, which support Identity-Bound Biometric authentication, and its FIDO-key® security keys.
Alex Rocha, BIO-key’s Managing Director for EMEA elaborated on the relationship, "Our work with AWS plays a crucial role in executing our targeted strategy for the EMEA market. Through the AWS Partner Network we can effectively extend the scope of our sophisticated IAM solutions worldwide, specifically addressing clients who depend on cloud-based services. This relationship underscores our commitment to delivering high-quality, secure, and reliable identity and access management solutions for diverse customers and industries."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
So, is this new director the scapegoat for the possible reverse split in order to regain compliance with NASDAQ? or,… Maybe he can come up with some new ways to get the pps over a buck… Who knows…
Identity and Access Management Software Provider BIO-key Names Seasoned Financial Services Executive Cameron E. Williams to its Board of Directors
WALL, N.J., June 02, 2023 (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 it has appointed Cameron E. Williams to its Board of Directors.
Mr. Williams has spent over forty years in leading executive officer roles in banking and financial services firms, serving on the board of directors of multiple organizations and more recently, in founding and leading strategic, financial and security consulting firms. Mr. Williams brings deep experience, an ideal skill set, and a broad base of relationships to his role on BIO-key’s Board.
Mike DePasquale, BIO-key’s Chairman and CEO, commented, “We are pleased to have Cameron join our Board at a time of significant growth and development for BIO-key. He brings broad executive and board-level experience across a variety of enterprises and industries. Importantly, he possesses strong financial acumen and perspective that we believe will be very valuable in guiding our future growth and success.”
Mr. Williams currently leads CEW Advisory Services, a Canton Georgia based consulting firm he founded in 2014. CEW serves the consumer lending industry with process assessment, strategic planning and customer service quality control audits for financial and non-financial retailers. He previously founded CEW Solutions which provided fraud investigation services to insurance companies, law firms, and third-party administrators..
From 2007 to 2009 Mr. Williams served as COO of Asta Funding, Inc., a publicly traded diversified financial services company, he was responsible for the sourcing and financial analysis of distressed consumer asset investments and their liquidation.
Mr. Williams served as President of Popular Financial Holdings, an affiliate of Popular, Inc., a $36 billion banking organization from 1998 to 2007. Prior to this role, he served as COO and EVP of Security Pacific Financial Services; CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of BankAmerica Financial, Inc.; and EVP, CFO and Chief Administrative Officer of Security Pacific Financial Services System, Inc.
Mr. Williams has substantial experience serving on the board of directors of organizations including: Popular Financial Holdings, Inc.; National Home Equity Mortgage Association; BankAmerica Financial, Inc.; Security Pacific Financial Services; and Corporate Partners of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He earned his Bachelor’s in Accounting and completed graduate coursework at San Diego State University.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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, 2022 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. Receives Notice of Non-Compliance from Nasdaq
WALL, N.J., May 30, 2023 (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), announced today that on May 23, 2023, it received a letter (the “Notification Letter”) from The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (“Nasdaq”) informing the Company that it was not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1), which requires listed companies to timely file all required periodic financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), due to the Company’s failure to timely file its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2023 (the “Form 10-Q”). The Notification Letter has no immediate effect on the listing or trading of the Company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
The Company filed a Notification of Late Filing on Form 12b-25 on May 16, 2023, indicating that the filing of the Form 10-Q would be delayed because the compilation and review of certain financial information necessary for the completion of the review of the financial statements to be included in the Form 10-Q could not be completed within the prescribed time period without unreasonable effort and expense to the Company.
The Notification Letter stated that the Company remains delinquent in filing its Form 10-K for the period ended December 31, 2022 (the “Form 10-K”) and has until June 20, 2023 to submit a plan to regain compliance with respect to these delinquent reports. If the plan is accepted, Nasdaq may grant an extension of up to 180 calendar days from the filing due date of the 10-K, or until October 16, 2023, to regain compliance. The Company intends to file the Form 10-Q and the Form 10-K with the SEC as soon as practicable and regain compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key’s patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International gets non-compliance notice from Nasdaq due to late filing
May 30, 2023 5:10 PM ETBIO-key International, Inc. (BKYI)By: Anuron Mitra, SA News Editor
BIO-key International (NASDAQ:BKYI) on Tuesday said it had got a Nasdaq notification that it was not in compliance with listing rules due to delay in a filing.
The company failed to file its form 10-Q for the March quarter on time.
BKYI has until June 20 to submit a plan to regain compliance.
BIO-key Unveils PortalGuard® Feature Enhancements Including Support for MacOS Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for Enterprise
PortalGuard adds core capabilities, innovating secure access across diverse and difficult use cases
WALL, N.J., May 25, 2023 (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 a significant product feature update to its PortalGuard® Desktop, which secures initial desktop authentication as part of BIO-key’s PortalGuard® suite of IAM products. The new release now supports MacOS sign-in to enterprise Active Directory and other LDAP environments. Prior versions of PortalGuard Desktop supported Windows sign-on only. Now, organizations of all sizes and industries can secure server and desktop logins for MacOS users, bringing many executive and creative workforce users into MFA compliance.
“Many products from competitors cannot enforce MFA when unlocking their Mac users’ devices. This becomes a major security and productivity issue if company policy requires users to fully log out of their MacOS whenever they leave their workstation,” said Gregg Browinski, VP of Engineering, BIO-key – PortalGuard. “With more and more companies seeing significant segments of their user population using Macs as their primary workstation, it’s critical that the proper security protocols are implemented across all devices and operating systems. I believe this latest enhancement to PortalGuard Desktop will allow businesses to tackle some key use cases previously too difficult to manage.”
This recent update to offer MacOS functionality builds on PortalGuard Desktop’s original core capabilities:
Desktop Self-service and Enrollment capabilities to reduce downtime and helpdesk calls by allowing users to manage their account preferences, privacy controls, and self-enrollment where allowed.
Desktop Multi-factor Authentication at the operating system level bolsters security and protects sensitive device-resident data and shared resource access.
BIO-key believes the core capabilities of PortalGuard Desktop allow any organization to overcome challenges commonly presented in typical business use cases, including:
Shared or Local Workstations: employing roving users on shared workstations or desktops is an operational business mandate across many industries. PortalGuard Desktop provides true MFA when unlocking the device, offering the security and flexibility to keep your organization protected and productive.
IT Access to Servers & Infrastructure: protecting access to the back-end servers that power an organization’s operations have long been required for IT teams. PortalGuard Desktop can be easily installed on Windows servers to enforce this MFA requirement for console-based access through hypervisors and remote access through RDP or third-party Privileged Access Management solutions.
Remote Users: many of today’s potential points of attack have fewer cybersecurity protections than traditional office buildings, and businesses must have the proper protocols when employees require remote access. PortalGuard Desktop allows organizations to enforce flexible, secure MFA for users and admins working remotely.
Cyber Insurance: with more users using Macs as their primary workstations, it’s critical to ensure that your MFA requirements – including those around security controls and internal processes around cyber risk – are fulfilled for all users across the entire organization. PortalGuard Desktop brings powerful, flexible Multi-factor Authentication to all employees, regardless of their device.
With the ability to secure logins from both desktops and servers with flexible MFA options, including Identity-Bound Biometrics, and self-service password reset, BIO-key is confident that its latest offering sets it apart from competitors’ IAM solutions in several ways:
PortalGuard supports Identity Bound Biometric authentication options that allow identities to be secured to the person, not simply a token or their phone.
While many other solutions are cloud-only, PortalGuard Desktop works with both on-premises and cloud or IDaaS (Identity-as-a-Service) deployments of PortalGuard;
PortalGuard Desktop enforces MFA when unlocking the Mac device – a function many alternative IAM vendors do not support; and
The greatest number of authentication options and factors makes PortalGuard Desktop the most flexible security product of this type.
To learn more about the latest enhancements to PortalGuard Desktop, please visit the official BIO-key website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Wood County, OH Deploys Flexible Multi-Factor Authentication Security with PortalGuard® Identity and Access Management Cloud Platform
WOOD COUNTY, Ohio and WALL, N.J., May 22, 2023 (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), announced that Wood County, OH selected its PortalGuard IDaaS® platform for improved security for desktop and application access and to meet regulatory and insurance compliance. PortalGuard was chosen through the County’s competitive Request for Proposal vendor selection process.
Wood County requirements specified integration with Microsoft Azure Active Directory and seven on-premise Active Directory domains maintained by the County for 900 accounts, along with a desktop multi-factor authentication (MFA) solution to secure on-premise or remote workstation access. The County's IT team required flexible MFA options to provide alternatives to smart device authentication. PortalGuard IDaaS delivers a range of multi-factor authentication options, including PortalGuard Desktop, IBB, and FIDO security keys, enabling secure data access, a frictionless login experience, and reduced authentication fatigue. The County was also attracted to BIO-key’s proven track record, superior quality and support, and solution-oriented customer service team.
"County Governments continue to select BIO-key over competitive solutions because of our broad array of MFA capabilities and our cost-effectiveness," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "With PortalGuard IDaaS, County IT teams can enable enhanced security capabilities while improving the login experience for on-premise and remote users. A core strength of PortalGuard is providing our customers flexibility in applying strong security to all elements of their environment while supporting a passwordless authentication model."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy-to-deploy, convenient, and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on-premises 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; 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 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
What a joke this company is!!!
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 16, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
William Jones - Catalyst IR
Michael DePasquale - Chairman and CEO
Cecilia Welch - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Jack Vander Aarde - Maxim Group
Operator
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the BIO-key International's First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Bill Jones of Investor Relations. You may proceed.
William Jones
Thank you. Thank you for joining today's call. Participating today are BIO-key's Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale; and CFO, Cecilia Welch. I remind everyone that today's conference call and webcast as well as answers to questions will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and that can cause actual results to differ from those expected.
Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan, project or similar words generally identify and express such forward-looking statements. These statements are made based on management's beliefs and assumptions today using information currently available pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
For a complete description of these and other risk factors that may affect the future performance of the company, please see risk factors in the company's annual report as 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 as of today's date only. BIO-key undertakes no obligation to revise or to disclose revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after today.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
Michael DePasquale
Thanks, Bill, and good morning, and thank you for -- to everyone for joining us today. We held our Q4 call just six weeks ago, and so we can keep our comments brief on this call. After Cecilia does a brief update on our -- the status of our filings, our 10-K and 10-Q, she'll review our financials and then we will open the call to investor questions.
We are very proud to report quarterly revenue growth of 59% from $1.9 million to $3.1 million for Q1 '23, along with the substantial improvement in our bottom line performance, reducing our operating loss by 70% from $1 million to $308,000. As we have discussed, our quarterly performance reflects our growing base of annual recurring software and maintenance revenue as well as strong new customer activity, reflecting our growing global base of partners in our Channel Alliance Program as well as enhancements to our direct sales efforts, including a disciplined focus on larger enterprise opportunities. These go-to-market paths are resonating in the market we serve and are generating a growing pipeline of opportunities, including several large customer prospects in the mid- to high six digits and above range.
Specifically, our Identity-Bound Biometric solutions, which address customer mandates for phone-less, token-less or password-less authentication, are really resonating in the marketplace. For example, at a recent Gartner-hosted event, including the Gartner IAM conference in April, we have developed several significant IAM deployment prospects that we are now working to progress to formal engagements.
The Gartner events have proven to attract a very strong base of larger prospects with particular requirements that match well to our solutions. We're optimistic that a number of these larger opportunities will progress to formal deployments later this year, including a few that are already in proof-of-concept stages.
Building on this traction, we attended the RSA conference earlier this month and we'll be attending the Identiverse Conference early June. We've also refined our focus in Africa, signing a number of new partners who will sell our PortalGuard solutions to the emerging markets in a number of countries on the continent.
Concurrently, we continue to serve the larger contracts that we've executed two years ago. Our work with Nellix in supporting the onboarding of young college level graduates to support the emerging identity and payment ecosystem is starting to gain traction, and you will be hearing more from us on this initiative in the coming months.
First quarter developments included the expanded use of our biometric client identification system to 21 million users by Capitec Bank in South Africa from just 9 million users in March of 2020. Our solution delivers enhanced security which streamline client identification in a highly scalable manner. Capitec has been a flagship banking client since 2015 when they took the pioneering step to leverage fingerprint biometrics to secure their clients against fraud and theft. Our work with Capitec has developed into a long-term relationship, a very valuable customer case study, and, of course, a growing base of recurring revenue for BIO-key.
Also, in Q1, our Swivel Secure business launched a project to enable 1.5 million citizens in a Central American nation to securely access their country's online tax applications. Our solution will reduce long queues for tax delivery, providing substantial benefits to both taxpayers and the tax authority. We have also recently supported Dayton Children's Hospital with their migration to Epic Hyperdrive, the next-generation web-based medical records application.
Our PortalGuard solutions provide support for their existing deployment of our biometric authentication solution in this new web-based Epic environment. Our work with Dayton's provides an excellent proof of concept for other Epic clients, utilizing our biometric solutions who are now contemplating the migration to Epic Hyperdrive.
Our Identity-Bound Biometrics, or IBB, capabilities create a personalized authentication solution that is both highly secure and frictionless for end users. Shared workstations are common in a variety of settings in health care, customer service centers, and even in manufacturing and industrial settings. Such shared workstation access creates the potential for security vulnerabilities due to password, token, or card sharing.
Our IBB solutions allow customers to cost-effectively deploy flexible authentication capabilities in a boneless, token-less, and cardless environment balancing strong security, expediency, and convenience.
Another Q1 highlight was with Alabama Power, headquartered in Birmingham, which selected BIO-key's PortalGuard and WEB-key to secure their 15 enterprise Air Gap networks, representing a new customer relationship for us. BIO-key serves over 600 customers around the globe with strong engagement and higher education, county governments, health care, and financial services.
Customers are attracted to our highly efficient, cost-effective solutions that deliver secure, scalable, easy-to-use, quick-to-deploy user access across hybrid user environments. As mentioned, we are seeing particularly strong engagement prospects that are seeking a more robust authentication solution to meet their specific needs and eliminate commonly used authentication factors that are failing.
To address this global opportunity, we continue to build on our technology and distribution partner efforts to position BIO-key solution before a broader base of prospects. We're also working to more deeply engage with some of our larger and more influential partners. For example, our EMEA group recently met with a leading global web service provider about quickly onboarding BIO-key into their accelerator program.
We hope to have more to say on this next quarter. Additionally, we have an effort focused on building technical alliances with other leaders in the IAM industry, such as BeyondTrust and [indiscernible], where we can collaborate to bring the best-in-breed solutions to their customers. Though we had viewed these companies sometimes as competitors, we recognize today that there are mutually beneficial ways that we can work together.
We continue talking with other industry leaders where we feel there are good synergies. We expect these tech partnerships to open new sales opportunities, both small and large, and we would not -- that we would not otherwise be able to pursue. As partner source sales opportunities are increasing, we're building awareness, engagement, and understanding of our capabilities within our CAP program members. In that vein, we have watched the program we call BIO-key University for channel partners to train online on BIO-key integrated solutions with the first version ready to roll out this quarter.
In terms of product development, we recently completed a WEB-key password list log-in browser for Epic, I mentioned that before. We're releasing two new PortalGuard family products: a PortalGuard desktop MFA for Windows and Mac this month and PortalGuard for MSPs this quarter, as part of our effort to expand the capability and relevance of our suite of software solutions, especially for managed service providers, managed security service providers and all of our other partners in our partner network.
On the marketing front, we have implemented an account-based marketing model where our marketing and sales resources are better focused and aligned to target new commercial account opportunities with larger deal sizes. Our goal is to increase our average project size by 50% this year. For perspective, we've contacted 35 new marketing qualified accounts in April alone, leveraging this new approach.
Cecilia will review our Q1 financials next. But from a high level, the strategic actions we have been taking enabled us to achieve record quarterly revenue in Q1 '23 while also trimming our operating loss. Considering this solid start to 2023 and our growing pipeline of new and existing customer opportunities, including larger engagements, we are confident BIO-key is positioned to deliver top-line growth and bottom-line improvements for the full fiscal 2023 year with some variability in our quarterly results driven by timing of new business activity.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Cecilia.
Cecilia Welch
Well, thanks, Mike. I'd like first to address the status of our SEC filings. As many of you know, our filing of the 2022 annual report on Form 10-K has been delayed. After over a decade of never missing the SEC filing deadlines for our quarterly and annual reports, we were unable to file our 10-K on time this year. This was primarily due to our acquisition of Swivel Secure in March of 2022 and our auditors being acquired by Marcum, LLP in February of 2022.
The combination of the expanded operations in Europe and the transition to Marcum, a large national accounting firm, increased the scope of work for both our internal financial team and outside auditors. Due to resource constraints, the completion of the audit process and the 10-K filing have been delayed. We now expect our Form 10-K to be filed by the end of this week, and we expect our Q1 '23 Form 10-Q to be filed early next week. Importantly, we've had no difference of opinion with our auditors and we do not anticipate any material changes to our 2022 results or our first quarter 2023 results from the results disclosed in our news release.
Now I'll turn to the first quarter results. Q1 '23 revenue increased to $3.1 million or 59% over Q2 -- Q1 '22, reflecting higher software license and service fees and the full quarter benefit of Swivel Secure Europe, which was acquired in March of 2022. Revenue from software licenses increased 69% in Q1 '23 and 136 sequentially to $2.5 million in Q1 '23, reflecting strength from new PortalGuard customers, existing recurring revenue contracts, and Swivel Secure.
Service revenue increased 33% year-over-year to $527,000, which is down from $587,000 in Q4 2022. Due to the timing of new customer projects and existing customer migrations to the PortalGuard IDaaS from their on-prem version, hardware revenue was down 15% year-over-year and 43% sequentially, which was related to the mix of installations and other projects completed in the period.
We view ourselves as primarily a software solution provider and use hardware to support the sales of our software primarily for biometric deployments. Gross profit increased to $2.3 million from $1.6 million in Q1 2022 due to revenue growth. As a percent of sales, gross margin declined to 74% from 83% in Q1 '22 with a variance reflecting a full quarter of Swivel Secure revenues in Q3 -- Q1 '23, which reflects third-party software license fees. Sequentially, our consolidated gross margin improvement from 66% realized in Q4 due to a mix due that included more high-margin license fees in Q1 '23.
Total operating expenses decreased modestly to $2.57 million in Q1 '23 from $2.60 million in Q1 '21 -- '22 as higher selling, G&A expenses related to Swivel Secure were offset by lower research and development and engineering expenses, following the completion of significant enhancements to our mobile app and the PortalGuard IDaaS enhancements. Generally, we expect lower R&D expenses in 2023 as the outside resources required in 2022 are no longer required. IOC has also taken a number of expense reduction initiatives that should help to reduce the overhead expenses in the coming quarters for the full year of 2023, particularly as a percentage of sales.
As a result of the higher revenue and slightly lower operating costs, BIO-key reported a reduced Q1 net loss of $526,000 or $0.06 per share versus $1 million or a loss of $0.13 per share in Q1 2022. IoT ended the quarter with current assets of $9.3 million, including $700,000 of cash and cash equivalents, $3.4 million of accounts receivable, and $4.4 million of inventory. Our receivables are typically selected on the nonpayment term of 30 to 90 days. In terms of inventory, much of what we purchased to avoid the supply chain concerns in anticipation of ramping up requirements related to the civil ID prog. projects in Africa is now being fully sold and liquidated to further strengthen our financial position.
That concludes my remarks. And now we can turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. And the first question will come from Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. Good morning, guys. I appreciate the quarterly update, and really good to see the strong growth in operating improvement. Michael, great to see as well record quarterly revenue of $3 million. I imagine the majority of that first-quarter revenue is attributed to recurring license revenue.
Last year, looking at the second quarter and the third quarter, it did dip down below the first quarter. So just looking ahead for this year, do you expect a similar sequential trend? Or do you expect sequential growth throughout the year? Thank you.
Michael DePasquale
Well, we don't provide quarterly guidance so I can't address that very specifically. But our base is growing, as you can see, and getting much stronger. We did have a strong Q1 and Q4 last year. And so, if you think about our European business, for example, the summer is always a very slow period. So, the third quarter in Europe might be lower than, for example, our domestic business.
So, there will be variability, but we certainly believe that this business is going to grow. Our base is growing. Our pipeline is growing. The size of the opportunities that we're pursuing is growing. And so, all of this combined should put us in a very nice position to do two things: number one, continue to grow aggressively, continue to build a significant base of customers, which we already have, but to build on that; and ultimately, to get the company to breakeven and profitability, which we expect to happen as we proceed through the year.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Fantastic. I appreciate the color there. And obviously, so, the licensing side of the business on the PortalGuard side is clearly ramping. I do want to just touch on the Africa contracts. I know you're expanding with other opportunities in Africa and elsewhere in the world. But can you just provide an update on your visibility regarding the original two large Africa contracts?
Michael DePasquale
Yes. I made some comments actually in my prepared comments, mentioned that we are expanding our partner network on the continent to push and sell our IAM solutions. We do have a really nice base in the Middle East, and so we're continuing to expand our partner network to sell our traditional products there. As it relates to the two contracts we have, I mentioned that the larger one, the one that fundamentally allows for us to help the country employ college graduates, young college graduates and get them into the identity and the payments ecosystem is progressing forward, albeit slow. But you'll hear more from us shortly.
That program and the initiatives that we have centered around that contract are starting to take hold.
The other contract, as it relates to the hardware sales for identity and identity management, there was -- that's centered solely in Nigeria. And there was recently a national election. So, the new regime is kind of taking over. And we're hoping that the country will settle down, and that will begin the initiatives to continue to, enroll all of the citizens there will continue. But we have a significant, as Cecilia mentioned, portfolio of inventory associated with that project.
We're not sitting on it. We are actively selling that inventory off to other projects and other programs while we expect in Africa that to begin to produce and bear fruit for us as we get through the rest of the year. But we're not sitting on that. I mean, it's been nearly two years. And just the tumult in the country, the consternation with the World Bank just makes it very, very difficult for us to continue to sit on that inventory and wait for that project to move forward. So, we've got, I'll call it, a lot of irons in the fire right now, and we're progressing forward.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. And then maybe just one more follow-up for me on the liquidity side, given the current cash balance. I know you mentioned you're rolling out some cost reduction initiatives. But can you just speak to your liquidity needs and cash runway? Thank you.
Michael DePasquale
Well, I think we -- you can see we have a significant portion of receivables. And as Cecilia mentioned, we have -- our DSO is pretty good. Typically, we collect all of our receivables in a 30-day to 90-day period. Some customers again are net 45, most are net 30 but some are even out to net 90. So, we have a significant chunk of receivables that we expect to collect going forward, well over $3 million. And we have the hardware inventory that we expect to be selling almost on a weekly basis. So, we expect that our cash flow from those two items right now will satisfy our business requirements.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. Yes, I see that looking at your balance sheet now. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Very helpful. Again, congrats on the strong momentum and a record quarter. It's great to see. Thanks Michael.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, Jack.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Our next question will come from Dan Kamis with [ph] private investor. Please go-ahead sir.
Unidentified Analyst
Nice quarter, guys. I'm trying to understand the mix. Was there a large biometric deal in that $2.5 million of license fees? Or was the big increase in license fees mostly slow? Just trying to understand the mix a little bit.
Michael DePasquale
Actually, it's a combination of all of our business. The large contract with Capitec Bank in South Africa is a biometric contract. So that is a substantial contract and that is biometric. So, it's a fair piece of that total license revenue is biometric as well.
Unidentified Analyst
I see. And was the Central American deal like six figures or something? Or you mentioned...
Michael DePasquale
Yes. It's a high six-figure deal.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Got it. In the past, I think there have been some large seven-figure foreign contract receivables and they haven't been able to be collected. I mean, is there any chance that any of these receivables, especially that $2 million increase in AR, becomes uncollectible?
Michael DePasquale
No. Actually, all of these receivables are solid contracted orders, recurring revenue or new business that's solidly contracted. So, no, the answer to that question is -- there's always a risk, right, in any contract, but the answer is no. These are all, I would consider, low-risk contracts.
Unidentified Analyst
All right, fantastic. In terms of variability, do you expect at least year-over-year growth each quarter?
Michael DePasquale
We don't provide quarterly guidance. I'm just not going to go there. I think, again, the base is -- I don't want to repeat myself. I think you heard me. The base is growing, the deal size is growing, the pipeline is growing, we expect to grow this business.
And we'd love to grow it on a record basis every quarter. I don't know if we can do that, we're certainly going to try. But we're going to grow pretty significantly through the rest of this year. And goal and objective, Dan, is to clearly get to breakeven at a minimum profitability and be cash flow positive as we leave the year. I mean, that's our goal and objective. And we're on a pathway to do that. We've got to execute.
Unidentified Analyst
I understand. Maybe Cecilia, if you can answer a couple of these. The OpEx came down to $2.6 million from $3.4 million in the third quarter, which were significant drops in SG&A and R&D. On the fourth quarter, you guys were giving estimates of $3 million to $3.5 million. Was this an anomaly? Or is this kind of the range moving forward?
Cecilia Welch
So, the lower range for the first quarter is the one moving forward. The end of last year, we wrote off some of the things we have been running off slowly. We just wrote them off in full at the end of the year. So yes, the first quarter -- or the fourth quarter was very different from the first quarter. First quarter is more realistic for the expenses going forward, yes.
Unidentified Analyst
That's fantastic. Can you say why -- or what happened to reduce the SG&A? I understand about the R&D. What came out of the SG&A?
Cecilia Welch
Well, we have been writing off -- we have a note receivable we are writing down slowly. We have been collecting it slowly but just not fast enough to present a nice financial picture. So, we wrote off the rest of that, which was $146,000. It's in bad debt. But like I said, we expect to collect it but more slowly than the GAAP likes to let you recognize.
And then there was another receivable that we also wrote off that we're not confident on selecting that one. So, there was a couple of bigger numbers in the fourth quarter to finalize those, in particular, those two items.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. The other thing I was curious about, Cecilia, was there's -- the inventory was $4.9 million in September. I think Mike said on the call that it was down to $4.8 million, But now we're down to 4.4 million, so -- but only 72 [ph] in sales. Was that written off, too? Or am I missing something?
Cecilia Welch
Yes, we took a reserve on the inventory, $400,000. That was in the fourth quarter numbers. So, it will be in the final K numbers, but we did take that $400,000 reserve against the inventory just based on slow-moving inventory, again, another GAAP requirement.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Well, let's see. I have one more question, I think, on that inventory. I'm wondering, can you give us, Mike, some color on -- a little more color on how much of that inventory you expect to sell moving forward this year? And do you need to sell that inventory to be able to pay off the note I think are...
Michael DePasquale
Dan, are you done?
Unidentified Analyst
Yes.
Michael DePasquale
Okay, yes. So, the answer to that question is all the inventory. So, remember that, that $4-plus million number is not all associated -- inventory associated with Africa. So, we have -- we do sell, for example, to a number of our larger clients, we sell full and complete solutions. So, we sell the hardware and the software to them, right? So, we keep a decent amount of inventory on hand so that we can quickly turn around for them.
So that's probably $0.5 million or so, even maybe more. It depends on timing. But we expect to sell all of that inventory this year, not some of it, all of it. And certainly, that sale of that inventory will help us pay off the AJB note that we have, which is a $2 million note. So, the answer to that question is yes on both.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. There is one more. Ping was bought out recently and you mentioned competitive synergies. Is there a capability that you guys have that competitors are particularly interested in?
Michael DePasquale
Absolutely. I mentioned it in my prepared comments, and you'll see it as a common thread in all of our messaging on our website at every event that we do and fundamentally every talk that we give. It really is about providing token-less password-less solutions that don't require a phone. So, in the context of kiosks and roving users and workstations that are shared, we have a solution that others, including Ping and Duo, a lot of the larger players do not have.
And in larger accounts, for example, on the manufacturing floor or in the customer call center, where they don't allow phones, we have a solution that can be complementary to what they may offer for SMS push or for, again, a phone token type option.
So, we don't necessarily have to be competitive. We can be collaborative. And I think that's what I was trying to get across. And we're working with a number of these very large players to integrate into their overall ecosystem to provide that kind of a solution for those types of users within larger entities.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Fantastic quarter. Good luck in the rest of the year.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, Dan.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Showing no further questions at this time, the question-and-answer session has ended. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mike DePasquale for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Question-and-Answer Session
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, and thank everyone -- thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We look forward to updating you on our Q2 call in August. As always, we'll provide news by press releases regarding anything that is appropriate. Once again, thank you for joining us this morning, and have a great day.
Operator
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 16, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
William Jones - Catalyst IR
Michael DePasquale - Chairman and CEO
Cecilia Welch - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Jack Vander Aarde - Maxim Group
Operator
Good morning, everyone. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the BIO-key International's First Quarter 2023 Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded today, Tuesday, May 16, 2023.
I would now like to turn the call over to Mr. Bill Jones of Investor Relations. You may proceed.
William Jones
Thank you. Thank you for joining today's call. Participating today are BIO-key's Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale; and CFO, Cecilia Welch. I remind everyone that today's conference call and webcast as well as answers to questions will include forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties and that can cause actual results to differ from those expected.
Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect, plan, project or similar words generally identify and express such forward-looking statements. These statements are made based on management's beliefs and assumptions today using information currently available pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
For a complete description of these and other risk factors that may affect the future performance of the company, please see risk factors in the company's annual report as 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 as of today's date only. BIO-key undertakes no obligation to revise or to disclose revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after today.
And with that, I'll turn the call over to Mike.
Michael DePasquale
Thanks, Bill, and good morning, and thank you for -- to everyone for joining us today. We held our Q4 call just six weeks ago, and so we can keep our comments brief on this call. After Cecilia does a brief update on our -- the status of our filings, our 10-K and 10-Q, she'll review our financials and then we will open the call to investor questions.
We are very proud to report quarterly revenue growth of 59% from $1.9 million to $3.1 million for Q1 '23, along with the substantial improvement in our bottom line performance, reducing our operating loss by 70% from $1 million to $308,000. As we have discussed, our quarterly performance reflects our growing base of annual recurring software and maintenance revenue as well as strong new customer activity, reflecting our growing global base of partners in our Channel Alliance Program as well as enhancements to our direct sales efforts, including a disciplined focus on larger enterprise opportunities. These go-to-market paths are resonating in the market we serve and are generating a growing pipeline of opportunities, including several large customer prospects in the mid- to high six digits and above range.
Specifically, our Identity-Bound Biometric solutions, which address customer mandates for phone-less, token-less or password-less authentication, are really resonating in the marketplace. For example, at a recent Gartner-hosted event, including the Gartner IAM conference in April, we have developed several significant IAM deployment prospects that we are now working to progress to formal engagements.
The Gartner events have proven to attract a very strong base of larger prospects with particular requirements that match well to our solutions. We're optimistic that a number of these larger opportunities will progress to formal deployments later this year, including a few that are already in proof-of-concept stages.
Building on this traction, we attended the RSA conference earlier this month and we'll be attending the Identiverse Conference early June. We've also refined our focus in Africa, signing a number of new partners who will sell our PortalGuard solutions to the emerging markets in a number of countries on the continent.
Concurrently, we continue to serve the larger contracts that we've executed two years ago. Our work with Nellix in supporting the onboarding of young college level graduates to support the emerging identity and payment ecosystem is starting to gain traction, and you will be hearing more from us on this initiative in the coming months.
First quarter developments included the expanded use of our biometric client identification system to 21 million users by Capitec Bank in South Africa from just 9 million users in March of 2020. Our solution delivers enhanced security which streamline client identification in a highly scalable manner. Capitec has been a flagship banking client since 2015 when they took the pioneering step to leverage fingerprint biometrics to secure their clients against fraud and theft. Our work with Capitec has developed into a long-term relationship, a very valuable customer case study, and, of course, a growing base of recurring revenue for BIO-key.
Also, in Q1, our Swivel Secure business launched a project to enable 1.5 million citizens in a Central American nation to securely access their country's online tax applications. Our solution will reduce long queues for tax delivery, providing substantial benefits to both taxpayers and the tax authority. We have also recently supported Dayton Children's Hospital with their migration to Epic Hyperdrive, the next-generation web-based medical records application.
Our PortalGuard solutions provide support for their existing deployment of our biometric authentication solution in this new web-based Epic environment. Our work with Dayton's provides an excellent proof of concept for other Epic clients, utilizing our biometric solutions who are now contemplating the migration to Epic Hyperdrive.
Our Identity-Bound Biometrics, or IBB, capabilities create a personalized authentication solution that is both highly secure and frictionless for end users. Shared workstations are common in a variety of settings in health care, customer service centers, and even in manufacturing and industrial settings. Such shared workstation access creates the potential for security vulnerabilities due to password, token, or card sharing.
Our IBB solutions allow customers to cost-effectively deploy flexible authentication capabilities in a boneless, token-less, and cardless environment balancing strong security, expediency, and convenience.
Another Q1 highlight was with Alabama Power, headquartered in Birmingham, which selected BIO-key's PortalGuard and WEB-key to secure their 15 enterprise Air Gap networks, representing a new customer relationship for us. BIO-key serves over 600 customers around the globe with strong engagement and higher education, county governments, health care, and financial services.
Customers are attracted to our highly efficient, cost-effective solutions that deliver secure, scalable, easy-to-use, quick-to-deploy user access across hybrid user environments. As mentioned, we are seeing particularly strong engagement prospects that are seeking a more robust authentication solution to meet their specific needs and eliminate commonly used authentication factors that are failing.
To address this global opportunity, we continue to build on our technology and distribution partner efforts to position BIO-key solution before a broader base of prospects. We're also working to more deeply engage with some of our larger and more influential partners. For example, our EMEA group recently met with a leading global web service provider about quickly onboarding BIO-key into their accelerator program.
We hope to have more to say on this next quarter. Additionally, we have an effort focused on building technical alliances with other leaders in the IAM industry, such as BeyondTrust and [indiscernible], where we can collaborate to bring the best-in-breed solutions to their customers. Though we had viewed these companies sometimes as competitors, we recognize today that there are mutually beneficial ways that we can work together.
We continue talking with other industry leaders where we feel there are good synergies. We expect these tech partnerships to open new sales opportunities, both small and large, and we would not -- that we would not otherwise be able to pursue. As partner source sales opportunities are increasing, we're building awareness, engagement, and understanding of our capabilities within our CAP program members. In that vein, we have watched the program we call BIO-key University for channel partners to train online on BIO-key integrated solutions with the first version ready to roll out this quarter.
In terms of product development, we recently completed a WEB-key password list log-in browser for Epic, I mentioned that before. We're releasing two new PortalGuard family products: a PortalGuard desktop MFA for Windows and Mac this month and PortalGuard for MSPs this quarter, as part of our effort to expand the capability and relevance of our suite of software solutions, especially for managed service providers, managed security service providers and all of our other partners in our partner network.
On the marketing front, we have implemented an account-based marketing model where our marketing and sales resources are better focused and aligned to target new commercial account opportunities with larger deal sizes. Our goal is to increase our average project size by 50% this year. For perspective, we've contacted 35 new marketing qualified accounts in April alone, leveraging this new approach.
Cecilia will review our Q1 financials next. But from a high level, the strategic actions we have been taking enabled us to achieve record quarterly revenue in Q1 '23 while also trimming our operating loss. Considering this solid start to 2023 and our growing pipeline of new and existing customer opportunities, including larger engagements, we are confident BIO-key is positioned to deliver top-line growth and bottom-line improvements for the full fiscal 2023 year with some variability in our quarterly results driven by timing of new business activity.
With that, I'll turn the call over to Cecilia.
Cecilia Welch
Well, thanks, Mike. I'd like first to address the status of our SEC filings. As many of you know, our filing of the 2022 annual report on Form 10-K has been delayed. After over a decade of never missing the SEC filing deadlines for our quarterly and annual reports, we were unable to file our 10-K on time this year. This was primarily due to our acquisition of Swivel Secure in March of 2022 and our auditors being acquired by Marcum, LLP in February of 2022.
The combination of the expanded operations in Europe and the transition to Marcum, a large national accounting firm, increased the scope of work for both our internal financial team and outside auditors. Due to resource constraints, the completion of the audit process and the 10-K filing have been delayed. We now expect our Form 10-K to be filed by the end of this week, and we expect our Q1 '23 Form 10-Q to be filed early next week. Importantly, we've had no difference of opinion with our auditors and we do not anticipate any material changes to our 2022 results or our first quarter 2023 results from the results disclosed in our news release.
Now I'll turn to the first quarter results. Q1 '23 revenue increased to $3.1 million or 59% over Q2 -- Q1 '22, reflecting higher software license and service fees and the full quarter benefit of Swivel Secure Europe, which was acquired in March of 2022. Revenue from software licenses increased 69% in Q1 '23 and 136 sequentially to $2.5 million in Q1 '23, reflecting strength from new PortalGuard customers, existing recurring revenue contracts, and Swivel Secure.
Service revenue increased 33% year-over-year to $527,000, which is down from $587,000 in Q4 2022. Due to the timing of new customer projects and existing customer migrations to the PortalGuard IDaaS from their on-prem version, hardware revenue was down 15% year-over-year and 43% sequentially, which was related to the mix of installations and other projects completed in the period.
We view ourselves as primarily a software solution provider and use hardware to support the sales of our software primarily for biometric deployments. Gross profit increased to $2.3 million from $1.6 million in Q1 2022 due to revenue growth. As a percent of sales, gross margin declined to 74% from 83% in Q1 '22 with a variance reflecting a full quarter of Swivel Secure revenues in Q3 -- Q1 '23, which reflects third-party software license fees. Sequentially, our consolidated gross margin improvement from 66% realized in Q4 due to a mix due that included more high-margin license fees in Q1 '23.
Total operating expenses decreased modestly to $2.57 million in Q1 '23 from $2.60 million in Q1 '21 -- '22 as higher selling, G&A expenses related to Swivel Secure were offset by lower research and development and engineering expenses, following the completion of significant enhancements to our mobile app and the PortalGuard IDaaS enhancements. Generally, we expect lower R&D expenses in 2023 as the outside resources required in 2022 are no longer required. IOC has also taken a number of expense reduction initiatives that should help to reduce the overhead expenses in the coming quarters for the full year of 2023, particularly as a percentage of sales.
As a result of the higher revenue and slightly lower operating costs, BIO-key reported a reduced Q1 net loss of $526,000 or $0.06 per share versus $1 million or a loss of $0.13 per share in Q1 2022. IoT ended the quarter with current assets of $9.3 million, including $700,000 of cash and cash equivalents, $3.4 million of accounts receivable, and $4.4 million of inventory. Our receivables are typically selected on the nonpayment term of 30 to 90 days. In terms of inventory, much of what we purchased to avoid the supply chain concerns in anticipation of ramping up requirements related to the civil ID prog. projects in Africa is now being fully sold and liquidated to further strengthen our financial position.
That concludes my remarks. And now we can turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. And the first question will come from Jack Vander Aarde with Maxim Group. Please go ahead.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. Good morning, guys. I appreciate the quarterly update, and really good to see the strong growth in operating improvement. Michael, great to see as well record quarterly revenue of $3 million. I imagine the majority of that first-quarter revenue is attributed to recurring license revenue.
Last year, looking at the second quarter and the third quarter, it did dip down below the first quarter. So just looking ahead for this year, do you expect a similar sequential trend? Or do you expect sequential growth throughout the year? Thank you.
Michael DePasquale
Well, we don't provide quarterly guidance so I can't address that very specifically. But our base is growing, as you can see, and getting much stronger. We did have a strong Q1 and Q4 last year. And so, if you think about our European business, for example, the summer is always a very slow period. So, the third quarter in Europe might be lower than, for example, our domestic business.
So, there will be variability, but we certainly believe that this business is going to grow. Our base is growing. Our pipeline is growing. The size of the opportunities that we're pursuing is growing. And so, all of this combined should put us in a very nice position to do two things: number one, continue to grow aggressively, continue to build a significant base of customers, which we already have, but to build on that; and ultimately, to get the company to breakeven and profitability, which we expect to happen as we proceed through the year.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Fantastic. I appreciate the color there. And obviously, so, the licensing side of the business on the PortalGuard side is clearly ramping. I do want to just touch on the Africa contracts. I know you're expanding with other opportunities in Africa and elsewhere in the world. But can you just provide an update on your visibility regarding the original two large Africa contracts?
Michael DePasquale
Yes. I made some comments actually in my prepared comments, mentioned that we are expanding our partner network on the continent to push and sell our IAM solutions. We do have a really nice base in the Middle East, and so we're continuing to expand our partner network to sell our traditional products there. As it relates to the two contracts we have, I mentioned that the larger one, the one that fundamentally allows for us to help the country employ college graduates, young college graduates and get them into the identity and the payments ecosystem is progressing forward, albeit slow. But you'll hear more from us shortly.
That program and the initiatives that we have centered around that contract are starting to take hold.
The other contract, as it relates to the hardware sales for identity and identity management, there was -- that's centered solely in Nigeria. And there was recently a national election. So, the new regime is kind of taking over. And we're hoping that the country will settle down, and that will begin the initiatives to continue to, enroll all of the citizens there will continue. But we have a significant, as Cecilia mentioned, portfolio of inventory associated with that project.
We're not sitting on it. We are actively selling that inventory off to other projects and other programs while we expect in Africa that to begin to produce and bear fruit for us as we get through the rest of the year. But we're not sitting on that. I mean, it's been nearly two years. And just the tumult in the country, the consternation with the World Bank just makes it very, very difficult for us to continue to sit on that inventory and wait for that project to move forward. So, we've got, I'll call it, a lot of irons in the fire right now, and we're progressing forward.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. And then maybe just one more follow-up for me on the liquidity side, given the current cash balance. I know you mentioned you're rolling out some cost reduction initiatives. But can you just speak to your liquidity needs and cash runway? Thank you.
Michael DePasquale
Well, I think we -- you can see we have a significant portion of receivables. And as Cecilia mentioned, we have -- our DSO is pretty good. Typically, we collect all of our receivables in a 30-day to 90-day period. Some customers again are net 45, most are net 30 but some are even out to net 90. So, we have a significant chunk of receivables that we expect to collect going forward, well over $3 million. And we have the hardware inventory that we expect to be selling almost on a weekly basis. So, we expect that our cash flow from those two items right now will satisfy our business requirements.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Great. Yes, I see that looking at your balance sheet now. Okay. That makes a lot of sense. Very helpful. Again, congrats on the strong momentum and a record quarter. It's great to see. Thanks Michael.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, Jack.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Our next question will come from Dan Kamis with [ph] private investor. Please go-ahead sir.
Unidentified Analyst
Nice quarter, guys. I'm trying to understand the mix. Was there a large biometric deal in that $2.5 million of license fees? Or was the big increase in license fees mostly slow? Just trying to understand the mix a little bit.
Michael DePasquale
Actually, it's a combination of all of our business. The large contract with Capitec Bank in South Africa is a biometric contract. So that is a substantial contract and that is biometric. So, it's a fair piece of that total license revenue is biometric as well.
Unidentified Analyst
I see. And was the Central American deal like six figures or something? Or you mentioned...
Michael DePasquale
Yes. It's a high six-figure deal.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Got it. In the past, I think there have been some large seven-figure foreign contract receivables and they haven't been able to be collected. I mean, is there any chance that any of these receivables, especially that $2 million increase in AR, becomes uncollectible?
Michael DePasquale
No. Actually, all of these receivables are solid contracted orders, recurring revenue or new business that's solidly contracted. So, no, the answer to that question is -- there's always a risk, right, in any contract, but the answer is no. These are all, I would consider, low-risk contracts.
Unidentified Analyst
All right, fantastic. In terms of variability, do you expect at least year-over-year growth each quarter?
Michael DePasquale
We don't provide quarterly guidance. I'm just not going to go there. I think, again, the base is -- I don't want to repeat myself. I think you heard me. The base is growing, the deal size is growing, the pipeline is growing, we expect to grow this business.
And we'd love to grow it on a record basis every quarter. I don't know if we can do that, we're certainly going to try. But we're going to grow pretty significantly through the rest of this year. And goal and objective, Dan, is to clearly get to breakeven at a minimum profitability and be cash flow positive as we leave the year. I mean, that's our goal and objective. And we're on a pathway to do that. We've got to execute.
Unidentified Analyst
I understand. Maybe Cecilia, if you can answer a couple of these. The OpEx came down to $2.6 million from $3.4 million in the third quarter, which were significant drops in SG&A and R&D. On the fourth quarter, you guys were giving estimates of $3 million to $3.5 million. Was this an anomaly? Or is this kind of the range moving forward?
Cecilia Welch
So, the lower range for the first quarter is the one moving forward. The end of last year, we wrote off some of the things we have been running off slowly. We just wrote them off in full at the end of the year. So yes, the first quarter -- or the fourth quarter was very different from the first quarter. First quarter is more realistic for the expenses going forward, yes.
Unidentified Analyst
That's fantastic. Can you say why -- or what happened to reduce the SG&A? I understand about the R&D. What came out of the SG&A?
Cecilia Welch
Well, we have been writing off -- we have a note receivable we are writing down slowly. We have been collecting it slowly but just not fast enough to present a nice financial picture. So, we wrote off the rest of that, which was $146,000. It's in bad debt. But like I said, we expect to collect it but more slowly than the GAAP likes to let you recognize.
And then there was another receivable that we also wrote off that we're not confident on selecting that one. So, there was a couple of bigger numbers in the fourth quarter to finalize those, in particular, those two items.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. The other thing I was curious about, Cecilia, was there's -- the inventory was $4.9 million in September. I think Mike said on the call that it was down to $4.8 million, But now we're down to 4.4 million, so -- but only 72 [ph] in sales. Was that written off, too? Or am I missing something?
Cecilia Welch
Yes, we took a reserve on the inventory, $400,000. That was in the fourth quarter numbers. So, it will be in the final K numbers, but we did take that $400,000 reserve against the inventory just based on slow-moving inventory, again, another GAAP requirement.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Well, let's see. I have one more question, I think, on that inventory. I'm wondering, can you give us, Mike, some color on -- a little more color on how much of that inventory you expect to sell moving forward this year? And do you need to sell that inventory to be able to pay off the note I think are...
Michael DePasquale
Dan, are you done?
Unidentified Analyst
Yes.
Michael DePasquale
Okay, yes. So, the answer to that question is all the inventory. So, remember that, that $4-plus million number is not all associated -- inventory associated with Africa. So, we have -- we do sell, for example, to a number of our larger clients, we sell full and complete solutions. So, we sell the hardware and the software to them, right? So, we keep a decent amount of inventory on hand so that we can quickly turn around for them.
So that's probably $0.5 million or so, even maybe more. It depends on timing. But we expect to sell all of that inventory this year, not some of it, all of it. And certainly, that sale of that inventory will help us pay off the AJB note that we have, which is a $2 million note. So, the answer to that question is yes on both.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. There is one more. Ping was bought out recently and you mentioned competitive synergies. Is there a capability that you guys have that competitors are particularly interested in?
Michael DePasquale
Absolutely. I mentioned it in my prepared comments, and you'll see it as a common thread in all of our messaging on our website at every event that we do and fundamentally every talk that we give. It really is about providing token-less password-less solutions that don't require a phone. So, in the context of kiosks and roving users and workstations that are shared, we have a solution that others, including Ping and Duo, a lot of the larger players do not have.
And in larger accounts, for example, on the manufacturing floor or in the customer call center, where they don't allow phones, we have a solution that can be complementary to what they may offer for SMS push or for, again, a phone token type option.
So, we don't necessarily have to be competitive. We can be collaborative. And I think that's what I was trying to get across. And we're working with a number of these very large players to integrate into their overall ecosystem to provide that kind of a solution for those types of users within larger entities.
Unidentified Analyst
Okay. Fantastic quarter. Good luck in the rest of the year.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, Dan.
Operator
[Operator Instructions]. Showing no further questions at this time, the question-and-answer session has ended. I would like to turn the call back over to Mr. Mike DePasquale for any closing remarks. Please go ahead, sir.
Question-and-Answer Session
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, and thank everyone -- thank you, everyone, for joining today's call. We look forward to updating you on our Q2 call in August. As always, we'll provide news by press releases regarding anything that is appropriate. Once again, thank you for joining us this morning, and have a great day.
Operator
The conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Identity and Access Management Provider BIO-key’s Q1 Revenue Rose 59% Driven by Growing Recurring Revenue Base and New Customer Wins; Investor Call 10am ET Today
WALL, N.J., May 16, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key® International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today reported record quarterly revenue and improved bottom line results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2023 (Q1’23). BIO-key will host an investor call today at 10:00 a.m. ET (details below) to review its results and outlook.
Highlights:
Q1’23 revenues grew 59% to $3.1M, reflecting a growing base of high-margin, annual recuring revenue (ARRs) and new customer wins.
Continued strength in higher education IAM deployments at colleges in California, Texas, Georgia and North Carolina.
Government sector growth, including recent deployments in California, New York, North Carolina and Central America.
Expanding global distribution partner network, including BeyondTrust; Bravanta Group; and Ethnos IT Solutions and Pixel Infinito in Africa.
Expanding existing enterprise relationships, including with Dayton Children’s Hospital as well as migrating several on-premises customers to BIO-key’s cloud-based PortalGuard Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) Authentication solution.
CEO Commentary
BIO-key CEO Michael DePasquale commented, “BIO-key’s record first quarter revenue reflects our growing base of annual recurring software and software maintenance revenue, as well as strong new and existing customer activity in the period. In addition to growing global license sales through our expanding Channel Alliance Partner program, our enhanced focus on larger enterprise opportunities is resonating in the marketplace, generating a growing pipeline of much larger opportunities. In particular, our participation at recent Gartner hosted events has generated several significant IAM deployment prospects that we are now working to advance to the contract stage.
“Key first quarter events include the expanded use of our biometric client identification system to 21.7 million users by Capitec Bank in South Africa, compared to just 9 million users in March 2020. Our solution delivers enhanced security and streamlined client authentication in a highly scalable manner, resulting in growing base of recurring revenue. In addition, our Swivel Secure business will enable 1.5 million citizens in a Central American country to securely access their online tax application, providing substantial benefits to both users and the tax authority. We also supported Dayton Children's Hospital with their migration to Epic Hyperdrive, the next-generation web-based medical records application. Our PortalGuard solution provides support for their existing deployment of BIO-key’s biometric authentication in this new environment and provides an excellent case study for health-care providers working to migrate to Epic Hyperdrive.
“BIO-key now serves over 600 customers around the world, with strong engagement in higher education, county governments, health care, and financial services. Customers prefer our highly efficient, cost-effective solutions that deliver scalable, secure and easy to deploy user access across hybrid user environments. We are seeing particularly strong customer engagement in use cases that involve shared workstations or where the use of tokens or mobile-phone based authentication is either prohibited or not possible.
“The need for enhanced identity and access management solutions continues to expand at a rapid rate, with a growing preference for password-less solutions, where our multi-factor and identity-bound biometrics solutions can provide highly secure, flexible and cost-effective solutions. To address this global opportunity, we continue to enhance our direct sales and distribution partner efforts to position BIO-key to meet a growing base of customers and customer needs.”
Outlook
“As anticipated, BIO-key achieved record quarterly revenue in Q1’23, reflecting our growing base of annual recurring revenue and customer momentum. Q1’23 results also reflected higher gross profit and lower operating expenses enabling BIO-key to trim its operating loss to ($0.3M) from ($1.0M) in Q1’22. Reflecting this progress and a growing pipeline of new and existing customer opportunities, including much larger projects, we are confident BIO-key is positioned to deliver substantial top-line growth and bottom-line improvements in FY 2023.”
Financial Results
Please note that the review of our Q1 FY2023 financial statements has not been completed as of the date of this press release and the financial statements and financial information provided below have not been finalized and are subject to change.
Q1’23 revenue increased 59% to $3.1M from $1.9M in Q1’22, principally reflecting higher software license and service fees, including the benefit of Swivel Secure Europe which was acquired in March of Q1’22.
Gross profit rose to $2.3M in Q1’23 from $1.6M in Q1’22 as revenue growth more than offset a decrease in gross margin to 73% in Q1’23 from 83% in Q1’22. The variance in gross margin primarily reflects a full quarter of Swivel Secure revenues in Q1’23, which carry a higher cost of license fees for third party-software.
Q1’23 operating expenses decreased modestly to $2.57M compared to $2.60M in Q1’22, as higher selling, general and administrative expense related to Swivel Secure was offset by lower research, development and engineering expenses following the completion of certain product development efforts. BIO-key has undertaken a number of expense reduction initiatives which are expected to continue to reduce overhead expenses in future periods.
BIO-key reported a Q1’23 net loss of $0.5M, or $0.06 per share vs. $1.0M, or $0.13 per share in Q1’22
At the close of Q1’23, BIO-key had current assets of $8.9M, including $0.7M of cash and cash equivalents, $3.5M of accounts receivable, and $4.4M of inventory. As of the close of Q1’23, the Company had a current note payable and current portion of loans due totaling $1.9M, compared to $1.7M at year end 2022.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Today, Tuesday 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: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 6472819
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
March 31,
2023 December
31,
2022
(Unaudited)
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 667,649 $ 2,635,522
Accounts receivable, net 3,457,135 1,522,784
Due from factor 57,750 49,500
Inventory 4,427,815 4,434,369
Prepaid expenses and other 283,481 342,706
Total current assets 8,893,830 8,984,881
Equipment and leasehold improvements, net 94,170 107,413
Capitalized contract costs, net 254,279 283,069
Deposits and other assets 8,712 8,712
Operating lease right-of-use assets 131,223 197,355
Intangible assets, net 1,681,589 1,762,825
Total non-current assets 2,169,973 2,359,374
TOTAL ASSETS $ 11,063,803 $ 11,344,255
LIABILITIES
Accounts payable $ 1,191,223 $ 1,108,279
Accrued liabilities 876,287 1,009,123
Note payable, net of debt discount 1,723,330 1,577,172
Government loan – BBVA Bank – current portion 132,780 120,000
Deferred revenue – current 653,338 462,418
Operating lease liabilities, current portion 96,584 159,665
Total current liabilities 4,673,542 4,436,657
Deferred revenue – net of current portion 39,969 52,134
Government loan – BBVA Bank – net of current portion 281,153 326,767
Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 33,366 37,829
Total non-current liabilities 354,488 416,730
TOTAL LIABILITIES 5,028,030 4,853,387
Commitments and Contingencies
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 9,226,058 and 9,190,504 of $.0001 par value at March 31, 2023 and December 31, 2022, respectively 923 919
Additional paid-in capital 122,099,984 122,028,612
Accumulated other comprehensive income (242,602 ) (242,602 )
Accumulated deficit (115,822,532 ) (115,296.061 )
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 6,035,773 6,490,868
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY $ 11,063,803 $ 11,344,255
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(Unaudited)
Three months ended
March 31,
2023 2022
Revenues
Services $ 532,522 $ 395,804
License fees 2,478,556 1,460,183
Hardware 72,689 85,184
Total revenues 3,083,767 1,941,171
Costs and other expenses
Cost of services 154,801 210,913
Cost of license fees 620,881 73,230
Cost of hardware 44,592 53,298
Total costs and other expenses 820,274 337,441
Gross Profit 2,263,493 1,603,730
Operating expenses
Selling, general and administrative 1,881,732 1,797,998
Research, development and engineering 690,159 805,266
Total operating expenses 2,571,891 2,603,264
Operating loss (308,398 ) (999,534 )
Other income (expense)
Interest income 4 131
Loan fee amortization (99,000 )
Non-cash interest expense (62,158 )
Interest expense (56,919 ) -
Total other income (expense) (218,073 ) 131
Net loss $ (526,471 ) $ (999,403 )
Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share $ (0.06 ) $ (0.13 )
Weighted Average Shares Outstanding:
Basic and Diluted 9,240,443 7,885,008
Cybersecurity, Identity and Access Management Solutions Provider BIO-key, Hosts Q1 Conf. Call Tuesday, May 16th at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., May 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will review its Q1 2023 financials on a conference call, Tuesday, May 16th at 10 a.m. ET. Results will be released after the market closes on Monday. Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO and Cecilia Welch, CFO will lead the call and Q&A session.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Tuesday, 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: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 6472819
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises solutions.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate:
LinkedIn – Corporate:
Twitter – Corporate:
Twitter – Investors:
StockTwits:
https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
@BIOkeyIntl
@BIO_keyIR
BIO_keyIR
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Cybersecurity, Identity and Access Management Solutions Provider BIO-key, Hosts Q1 Conf. Call Tuesday, May 16th at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., May 08, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will review its Q1 2023 financials on a conference call, Tuesday, May 16th at 10 a.m. ET. Results will be released after the market closes on Monday. Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO and Cecilia Welch, CFO will lead the call and Q&A session.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Tuesday, 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: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 6472819
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises solutions.
Engage with BIO-key
Facebook – Corporate:
LinkedIn – Corporate:
Twitter – Corporate:
Twitter – Investors:
StockTwits:
https://www.facebook.com/BIOkeyInternational/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bio-key-international
@BIOkeyIntl
@BIO_keyIR
BIO_keyIR
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Partners with Angola-based Pixel Infinito, Expanding the Reach of its Identity and Access Management Solutions in Africa
LUANDA, Angola and WALL, N.J. , May 01, 2023 (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 strategic partnership with Pixel Infinito to bring its innovative IAM solutions to customers across Angola who are looking to enhance their cybersecurity with first in class identity and access solutions.
With a highly qualified and experienced team, Pixel Infinito provides high quality services in software development, management systems, data analysis, information security, network infrastructure and technical support. Partnerships with renowned brands ensures that Pixel Infinito has access to the latest technologies and tools to meet the specific needs of each client. Pixel offers innovative and customized solutions to help its clients achieve their business objectives and enhance their competitive position.
Pixel joins BIO-key’s global Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) program which makes it easy for partners to develop new recurring revenue streams via BIO-key’s full line of solutions, including its award-winning PortalGuard® platform. PortalGuard supports multi-factor authentication with unique IBB methods, single sign-on, and self-service password reset, along with hardware solutions, such as fingerprint scanners and FIDO-key® security keys. BIO-key solutions provide customers unparalleled flexibility in securing all their access management needs and use cases.
Founder and General Manager of Pixel Infinito, Marcos Lisboa commented, “We are very excited to establish this strategic partnership with BIO-key to further expand our offerings of industry leading information security solutions. Together, we will be able to provide complete and highly secure solutions to meet our customers' security needs in Angola and beyond.”
“With this partnership we are further expanding our international channel program in Africa,” said José Francês, VP of Sales for Africa, Europe, and Brazil at BIO-key. “Pixel Infinito offers us access to Angola and adjacent markets, including non-English speaking areas, with our unique IAM and Identity-Bound Biometrics solutions, leveraging Pixel’s strong reputation and local relationships as a well-respected cybersecurity VAR.”
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises solutions.
About Pixel Infinito (https://pixel.ao)
Pixel Infinito is an Information Technology (IT) company based in Angola, which acts as a partner of several renowned brands in the market, including Microsoft, IBM, Honeywell, Lenovo and others. The company offers customized technology solutions to help customers achieve their business objectives, using advanced technologies to solve process problems and improve operational efficiency. Pixel aims to help transform companies, by providing and enabling the most modern technology in its markets.
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 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. Receives Notice of Non-Compliance from Nasdaq
WALL, N.J., April 24, 2023 (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), announced today that on April 18, 2023, it received a letter (the “Notification Letter”) from The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (“Nasdaq”) informing the Company that it was not in compliance with Nasdaq Listing Rule 5250(c)(1), which requires listed companies to timely file all required periodic financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), due to the Company’s failure to timely file its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022 (the “Form 10-K”). The Notification Letter has no immediate effect on the listing or trading of the Company’s common stock on the Nasdaq Capital Market.
The Company filed a Notification of Late Filing on Form 12b-25 on March 31, 2023, indicating that the filing of the Form 10-K would be delayed because the compilation, presentation and review of certain financial and other information required to be included in the Form 10-K could not be completed within the prescribed time period without undue hardship and expense to the Company.
The Notification Letter stated that, under Nasdaq rules, the Company has 60 calendar days to submit a plan to regain compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements. If the plan is accepted, Nasdaq may grant an extension of up to 180 calendar days from the filing’s due date, or until October 16, 2023, to regain compliance. The Company intends to file the Form 10-K with the SEC as soon as practicable and regain compliance with Nasdaq’s continued listing requirements.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key’s patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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 “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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Dayton Children's Hospital Bridges Epic Hyperdrive Migration with PortalGuard® IAM Cloud to Expand its Utilization of BIO-key Identity-Bound Biometrics
DAYTON, Ohio and WALL, N.J., April 11, 2023 (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), announced that its longstanding customer Dayton Children's Hospital will add BIO-key’s PortalGuard IDaaS® platform to expand its existing BIO-key biometric authentication investment as it migrates from Epic Systems’ legacy Hyperspace application to the new browser-based Hyperdrive end-user application interface. PortalGuard’s standards-based integration with Hyperdrive allows Dayton Children’s to continue enjoying BIO-key’s streamlined biometric authentication user experience for Epic security without re-enrollment or adoption of more cumbersome, shareable, and expensive multi-factor authentication solutions.
Hyperdrive is Epic’s new browser-based application platform intended to replace its client-server Citrix-based Hyperspace end-user interface. Hyperdrive’s browser-based access improves security, makes deploying and updating applications easier and allows for more choice in third-party authentication providers. All Epic customers must migrate to Hyperdrive by the November 2023 release deadline. BIO-key’s PortalGuard cloud solution fully supports Hyperdrive’s modern authentication approach through its industry-standard SAML Identity Provider (IdP) capabilities. PortalGuard’s seventeen authentication factor choices include WEB-key fingerprint authentication, the same core BIO-key biometric authentication platform that thousands of Dayton Children’s users are already enrolled in and familiar with through BIO-key’s ID Director for Epic, a direct Epic Hyperspace integration. Additionally, by moving to PortalGuard as their IdP, other hospital applications can be configured to leverage PortalGuard for biometric authentication through its support for SAML, OAUTH, and OpenID Connect standard IdP integration options.
For over a decade, BIO-key’s ID Director for Epic enhanced Hyperspace to add simple and secure biometric authentication for Epic-based hospital systems in Ohio and around the US, fully compliant with Ohio’s Board of Pharmacy and the Federal Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Electronic Prescribing for Controlled Substance (EPCS) authentication regulations. Since 2011, Dayton Children’s Hospital has trusted BIO-key biometric software and hardware to secure and streamline its users’ login experience for Epic, and it wanted to leverage its investment in BIO-key’s superior Epic sign-in user experience and maintain a consistent user experience to simplify the Hyperdrive migration.
"Many of BIO-key’s hospital customers use Epic, and most are already in Hyperdrive migration engagements with our technical team," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "BIO-key’s unique identity-bound biometric capabilities have become a strong competitive advantage for us in healthcare because they create a long-lasting, personalized biometric authentication experience users prefer and are independent of phones, workstations, or tokens. Shared workstations are common in hospitals, yet most MFA solutions do not address them effectively, resulting in potential vulnerabilities due to token or card sharing, often committed in the name of expediency. BIO-key’s Identity-Bound Biometrics allows its hospital customers to cost-effectively leverage a phoneless, tokenless, and cardless authentication experience that users prefer because it strikes the proper balance between security and convenience."
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 and identity access management industries; 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:
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Contact:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ:BKYI) Q4 2022 Earnings Conference Call March 31, 2023 10:00 AM ET
Company Participants
William Jones - Catalyst IR
Michael DePasquale - Chairman and CEO
Galen Rodgers - VP of Channels
Cecilia Welch - CFO
Conference Call Participants
Jack Vander Aarde - Maxim Group
Operator
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the BIO-key International Fourth Quarter Conference Call. During management's prepared remarks, all participants will be in a 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, Friday, March 31, 2023.
Now I would like to turn the call over to Bill Jones, Investor Relations. Please proceed.
William Jones
Thank you, thank you for joining todays call. Participating today are BIO-key's Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale; CFO, Cecilia Welch. VP of Channels for North America, Galen Rodgers, and myself.
I will remind everyone that today's conference call and webcast as well as answers to questions may include forward-looking statements, which are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ from those projected.
Words such as anticipate, believe, estimate, expect and plan and similar words typically identify and express forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made based on management's beliefs and assumptions today, using information currently available pursuant to the Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
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 such forward-looking statements, which speak only as of today's date. BIO-key company undertakes no obligation to revise or disclose revisions to such forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances occurring after today.
And with that, I will turn the call over to Mike. Mike?
Michael DePasquale
Thanks, Bill. Good morning, and thank you for joining our call today. After my remarks, I want to let one of our new Senior Sales Executive, Galen Rodgers introduce himself, and review sales and channel initiatives for 2023. Ceci will provide financial highlights, and then we'll open the call to investor questions.
From a high level, we had a strong close to the year, achieving full year revenue of $7 million, which met the low end of our revenue guidance. More importantly, we made tremendous progress in 2022, solidifying our global reach and brand, while continuing to expand our base of high margin annual recurring revenue.
We now serve 10s of millions of end users across 600 customers globally, leveraging our PortalGuard platform in North America and Swivel Secure in Europe and the Middle East. We've evolved our business to a software-as-a service or a SaaS based model, or more precisely what we refer to as ID as-a service or IDaaS.
Our 2022 net loss increased due to added expenses from the acquisition of Swivel Secure, our PortalGuard, IDaaS sales and marketing built, and the active development of enhanced features for our solutions, including MobileAuth. Additionally, our personnel and other costs reflected general inflation based increases that were experienced by most companies in 2022.
In response, we have been taking steps to reduce costs wherever possible, including streamlining our headcount and overhead. We're also looking to enhance our financial liquidity by working to reduce hardware inventories, which we were increased to navigate potential supply chain challenges back in late 2021 and early 2022.
We had $4.8 million of inventory at year end, and we have a goal to reduce that by at least half in the first two quarters of 2023. Importantly, during 2022, BIO-key achieved higher software revenues in North America, Europe, the Middle East, South America and Asia, give an ongoing funding and rollout delays for government sponsored civil ID programs in Africa, it was the one region that did not achieve growth.
However, we are cautiously optimistic that things could begin to turn around and Africa, in particular Nigeria, as we progress through 2023.
Innovation remains critical to BIO-key’s growth and competitive position. And during 2022 we made significant progress expanding and enhancing our solutions, including our password lists and mobile solutions, which include our proprietary identity bound biometrics, or IBD capabilities.
We launched enhancements to our Mobile Authenticator app in Q3 2022. And we also developed and launched and updated Admin panel, that delivers an improved user experience for PortalGuard users. These successful launches received excellent feedback from customers and prospects.
Our PortalGuard IDaaS franchise continued to build momentum in 2022. Further expanding penetration of customers across higher education, county governments and business enterprises. Customers prefer a PortalGuard for its effective security, ease of use, scalability and attractive value proposition. In 2023, we will look to increase PortalGuards penetration of these verticals, while also pursuing opportunities in new adjacent markets.
To enhance the global reach of our solutions and sales, we have expanded our direct sales team, which is supported by both traditional and digital marketing campaigns. In conjunction with the management transition announced in January 2023, we recruited Galen Rodgers as VP of Channels, and Chad Carter, as VP of Sales, both in North America.
I will turn the call over to Galen in a moment. But let me first say that we are very excited to bring their experience, skill sets and leadership to our company, as they each have decades of valuable sales experience within larger organizations in our industry in space.
It cannot go unnoticed that cybersecurity challenges continue to grow in both the number of episodes and their severity. To counter this trend, industry forecasters expect another record level of cybersecurity spending in 2023. And we believe BIO-key is well positioned to benefit. To date, nearly a third of all organizations have launched passwordless authentication solutions, which is up from 22% last year, but still leaves a very substantial sales opportunity on the table.
We think our multi factor solutions with identity bound biometrics offer a unique and cost effective solution for organizations across most verticals, and use cases, especially for those looking to implement passwordless or zero trust solutions, which are critical in today's environment.
I could go on, but let me just say that we believe our substantial direct sales and partner distribution footprint positions us well around the globe. We are working a solid pipeline of customer opportunities, including several that are very substantial and scale. While we also continue to build this pipeline through our sales and marketing outreach.
The true force multiplier for us is our Channel Alliance Program or CAP. That is being spearheaded in EMEA by our Managing Director Alex Rocha, and here in North America by Galen. As a result, we feel confident for a continued growth in 2023 and beyond. We disclose today that we expect Q1 2023 revenue will be at a record level, getting us off to a strong start to the year.
And rather than attempt to project a specific revenue range for 2023, we've instead indicated that we expect 2023 will be a period of substantial top line and bottom line improvement. This outlook is supported by our strong start in Q1, along with our growing base of high margin contracted annual recurring revenues, which we currently estimate to be at approximately $7 million in run rate.
Based on these factors, we feel very confident, that substantially exceeding our 2022 top and bottom line performance, reducing our cash burn and moving towards breakeven and profitability.
Before I turn the call over, I'll note that a recent report by Houlihan and Lokey showed median valuation multiples for public companies in the cybersecurity software industry, range from a low of three to seven or eight times revenue on an enterprise basis, depending upon expected growth.
Obviously BIO-key is trading at much less than that based on 2022 results. And we are off to a strong start in 2023 which can meet solid appreciation for all of our stakeholders.
I'll now turn the call over to Galen Rodgers, who joined us in early 2023, to briefly review how he is working to take BIO-key sales reach to higher levels in 2023. Galen?
Galen Rodgers
Thank you very much, Mike. First about myself. I have 23 years in this business with 16 years in technology sales, with the majority of my time has been in Channel Sales. Most recently, I was Director of Strategic Channel at Ping Identity. From a channel perspective, our mission is building scalable, dependable, and collaborative avenues that contribute to revenue growth and value, while expanding our market presence globally.
More specifically, what this means is that we have focused on the core objectives of reaching new markets, building pipeline, generating partnerships, and increasing our deal size, and then tacking specific higher value opportunities. Higher value opportunities in cybersecurity would include such things as, established cybersecurity systems integrators, large account resellers, and technology partnerships. From there we manage and analyze what's working and not working, so that we can continue to enhance our process and performance.
We currently have a great base of partners in our Channel Alliance Partner Program, with over 500 partners globally. We have key distribution partners such as Intellisis, 3i, and DLT, a TD SYNNEX company and our sled partner. We have key value added reseller relationships that we have certain important tech alliances with firms like AWS, Beyond Trust and ForgeRock.
We also have key cyber managed security service provider relationships, and one of my initiatives in 2023, is to roll out our new enhanced partner program to new and curtain current partners. This will provide structure and incentives to evangelize, sell licenses, and provide services to the market.
This program will reward cybersecurity partners differently from the previous program by training partners to implement our solution and in turn provide additional sourced opportunities, which I believe is low hanging fruit to drive the business. From a numbers perspective, our plan includes 1 million of channel sourced bookings in 2023, and in addition of 3.5 million in future opportunities to the sales pipeline, from channel source to deals.
We have a number of new partners we are targeting. And obviously I won't discuss those for competitive reasons. However, we have a comprehensive list of prime targets. I'm very excited for the opportunity to be part of the BIO-key team, and I'm looking forward to taking our channel development and productivity to the next level.
With that brief overview, I'll provide an update from the VP of Sales. Chad Carter, who has joined the BIO-key team. Chad has been in the industry for 25 years, specifically in network and security sales. He recently finished a six years with European cybersecurity software provider, Wallex, building their UST. That team was up to eight people and primarily self-sufficient.
He made the move to BIO-key, because he really liked their products, biometric differentiation, and market opportunity, and he was ready for a new challenge.
Our team is focused on some core goals for 2023, which include increasing average deal size, better prospecting, a targeted selling of enterprises with bigger budgets, and most importantly, channel enablement. We believe that the channel needs to be involved in almost every deal involved early. This is how channel and field sales work together.
We will assign a partner as often as possible when it makes sense. Because to gain their mind share and focus, you need to be feeding the deals into the channel and get deals in return. It's really a symbiotic relationship when it works best.
When talking about increasing deal size. It really involves several factors that start even before you engage with the customer. We are focusing on longer term opportunities like three year deals that are paid upfront. This is achieved through better prospecting, targeting companies by revenue, targeting larger prospects, targeting prospects near current customers, focusing on key verticals outside of what we internally call sled, which is state and local counties, municipalities and education, which has been PortalGuards sweet spot.
Chad's theory with bigger prospects has always been land and expand, meaning let's get our foot in the door and we can grow the relationship over time. In this regard, we have been focusing on $500 million to $5 billion companies. meaning account based marketing, taking a narrower focus and going deeper -- by thinking bigger, we can increase our average selling price quite substantially as much as 50% in the first year. All these things can lead to larger deal size.
In line with our partner strategy, we're doing account mapping to align with our channel partner sales teams to drive new opportunities. And we're implementing a more formal referral selling program, as we found that customers are often open to giving a referral versus being a case study.
Again, some of this is basic, but as previously mentioned, we see some low hanging fruit strategies and tactics need to be communicated and executed and we're in that process. This is what the team is looking on in North America.
And with that, I will turn the time over to our CFO, Ceci Welch.
Cecilia Welch
Thank you, Galen. Please let me review some of our financial highlights. Q4 ‘22 revenue rose 88% to $1.8 million from $9.9 million in Q4 ‘21, reflecting higher software license and service fees, including the benefit of the Swivel Secure acquisition in March of 2022. Likewise, 2022 revenue rose 37% to $7 million versus $5.1 million in 2021.
Both current year periods, higher software license and service fees were partially offset by lower hardware revenue. Revenue from software licenses increased 92% in Q4 ‘22, and 79% to $4.6 million in fiscal year 2022, reflecting the addition of Swivel Secure and new quarterback customers and existing recurring revenue contracts.
Service revenue increased 104% in Q4 ‘22, and increased 41% to $1.8 million for the full year 2022. With the majority representing recurring maintenance and software and support. Recurring service revenue increased 13% to $1.2 million in 2022, due largely to increase maintenance related to software licenses. Non-recurring customer services increased 216% to $546,000 in 2022, due to increase new customer installations, Swivel service fees and the conversion to cloud platform. As our customer base continues to grow, we expect service revenues to continue to increase.
Our sales increased 25% in Q4 ‘22, but decreased 50% to $646,000 for the year. The annual decline was due to the sales to an international government agency in Nigeria in 2021 that did not recur in 2022, due to delayed rollout of the government project. Strength in Q4 ‘22 was attributable to new customer orders in addition to expanding existing installations.
Gross profit increased to $1.2 million in Q4 ‘22, versus $0.6 million in Q4 ‘21. Due to higher revenue for a better realized gross margin of 67% versus 60% in the prior year period. For the full year, gross profit margins improved to 71% in 2022, from 67% in fiscal 2021.
Total operating expenses increased to $5.9 million in Q4 ’22, from $2.6 million in Q4 ‘21. The full year 2022 operating expenses increased to $14.7 million from $8.4 million. The 2022 periods reflect the addition of the Swivel Secure operations, non-cash impairment charges to goodwill, and $1.8 million of the higher SG&A and research and development and engineering expenses.
Higher SG&A costs includes marketing expenses, legal and professional fees and other expenses incurred in connection with the acquisition of Swivel and our ADB capital loan, bad debts, an allowance for doubtful accounts. Moving forward in 2023, we do not expect bad debt and allowance for doubtful accounts to recur.
Higher R&D expense reflected increase in personnel costs and product development activity, including the Q3 launch of significant enhancements and updates in our MobileAuth app. We expect lower R&D expenses in 2023, as outside resources for 2022 product development activities are no longer required.
As such BIO-key recorded a Q4 ‘22 operating loss of $4.8 million versus an operating loss of $2 million in Q4 ‘21. With the increase primarily -- due primarily to the Q4 2022 non-cash goodwill exam and charge. BIO-key’s 2022 operating loss increased to $9.7 million from $4.9 million in ’21, due to higher costs and the goodwill impairment.
Likewise, BIO-key reported a net loss of $5.1 million to $0.62 per share in Q4 ‘22, versus a net loss of $2 million or $0.26 in Q4 ‘21. The company reported 2022 net loss of $10.2 million, or $1.26 per share versus a net loss of $5.1 million or $0.65 per share in 2021.
BIO-key ended the year with current assets of $9.7 million, including $2.6 million of cash and cash equivalents, $1.6 million accounts receivable and $4.8 million of inventory. BIO-key had a current note payable, the current portion of the loan due is $2.2 million.
That concludes my remarks. Now I'm going to turn the call back over to the operator for Q&A.
Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
[Operator Instructions] The first question will be from Jack Vander Aarde from Maxim Group. Please go ahead, sir.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, great. Good morning, guys. I appreciate the update. And thanks for taking my questions. I think as I did this last time, I'll just start with -- I'll start with some fourth quarter questions and move on to your outlook. But Ceci, I will finish with the question on what stock comp was in the quarter and what the current total shares outstanding is, as I as I wait for the 10-K?
So let me start with the question then from Michael. First, on the fourth quarter OpEx, you mentioned you expect the OpEx to be reduced sequentially as you head into first quarter, obviously overhead. Gut SG&A expense in the fourth quarter, it was $3.3 million. So that was a pretty substantially is up 800k from the third quarter and well above any other prior quarter.
So can you just help me understand, what is normalized SG&A expense as kind on quarterly basis as you kind of enter 2023?
Michael DePasquale
Good morning, Jack. And good, good question. So for sure, just at a high level, and then I'll have Ceci chime in. But, at a high level, based on what we said in our prepared remarks here. We've made significant investments in development for really in two areas for IDaaS, building out and scaling out our SaaS solution, and also our MobileAuth technology. So, you're going to start to see expenses normalize and come back down to a lower level that, again, because most of the initial development is complete, so you know, that's one area.
We also -- and again, I'll let Ceci address this specific Q4 SG&A increase, but why don't I let her do that now I think that's appropriate this way will directly answer your question.
Cecilia Welch
Okay, thanks, Mike. Yes, Jack, as we indicated, we wrote off some of the things that had been outlying as far as things we had on receivables that we didn't consider collectible. We paid some substantial fees for the loan and for acquiring Swivel. And then due to a lot of factors, we wrote the goodwill we had on the books off. So, you know, as you can see, there were just some goodwill loans $1.8 million, and then we had over another $1 million and other miscellaneous non-cash basically expenses that we could just consider that were not viable assets on the book.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. I guess, excluding the impairment charge, no, I'm not referring to that, I'm just talking about your actual SG&A expense, it was $3.3 million roughly. Is that kind of a normal baseline or that the highest quarter book value of $2.5 0:24:50 [ph] million in the third quarter?
Cecilia Welch
No. Right. And as Mike was -- yes, we've been streamlining it and we expect going forward that, SG&A, and R&D will be under $3 million per quarter. That's what we are budgeting towards.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay. Excellent. I appreciate the color there. Let me switch gears and quick to your outlook. Michael, it's good to hear you expect sequential revenue growth in first quarter ’23 and then substantial growth in for the full year of 2023. Even despite what sounds like limited visibility into the African contract contribution. But it may be just for clarity, as far as your first quarter ‘23 revenue outlook for sequential growth. Does that assume anything from those two African contracts? Or is this just mostly from the strength of your recurring license business? Thanks.
Michael DePasquale
Right now it's really the strength of our core business. What I mentioned and what was in our press release is that our current -- I'll call it recurring revenue stream, which consists of two items, mainly two items, and that's subscription revenue, annual subscription revenue. And the second is maintenance from our kind of traditional customers that bought perpetual licenses from us, but have to pay maintenance for support going forward.
So if you take those two buckets, that business right now, is contracted, meaning it's committed. And it will generate approximately $7 million in revenue. So that's our base. So we're starting fundamentally where we were at our full revenue picture in 2022. So our base is about $7 million. Anything above and beyond that, that I am predicting right now. And again, you'll see when we report our Q1 results said it will be a very strong and record quarter for us.
That is not including anything from the African business right now. We are cautiously optimistic that that business is going to start and ramp up again. There was an election in Nigeria that was held in February, the National Identity Management Commission has been fundamentally shut down in the context of making payments to the agents that were doing all of the enrollments for that World Bank initiatives. All of that is again, starting to bubble up again.
In fact, the World Bank is contemplating directly paying for the enrollments and paying the agents who were doing the enrollments because it's been just a debacle there to get the project moving at the pace that they want to see it move.
So in general, everything that we're projecting is less Africa. And I consider Africa right now, upside for us now. Now, that's one piece. The second piece is, our EMEA group, which is managed by our Managing Director in Europe, Alex Rocha, has been signing partners in Africa to sell our PortalGuard solutions. We just made an announcement on Thursday, Wednesday, or Thursday about a new partner that we just brought on Board Ethnos that focuses on cybersecurity, and has a practice across Africa to support enterprises and government agencies to help them strengthen their security infrastructure.
So, you know, we do believe that we're going to be selling our traditional products globally, including Africa. But the bulk of our focus right now is clearly on our core business, which is PortalGuard, and our biometrics.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, got it. Very helpful color. And you know, of course, you mentioned the $7 million kind of baseline is kind of where you're starting with your recurring revenues, which is very high margin revenue as well. So that's certainly a positive. And then in speaking of which, you mentioned, you're moving -- you're working on moving towards profitability. Just given your comments, unexpected overhead cost reductions, and yet substantial revenue growth and bottom line improvement in 2023. I guess it is just make sense to reassess kind of, do you have an idea of what sort of revenue represents breakeven or profitability for you?
Michael DePasquale
Well, I think on a high level, right, if we're in the $3.5 million range, right now, with current expense, at the current expense run rate, we're going to be certainly at breakeven or profitability. So, if you want to look at it on an annualized basis, it's probably around $14 million, give or take.
Now, there's some cost savings and advantages that we may see, as we traverse through the course of the year, and we're going to see our revenue grow as well. So perhaps that point will change. But right now, that's probably the best perspective, I think to give.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, that's very helpful. I appreciate that color. And then, as I mentioned, at the beginning, Ceci, if I could just maybe reflect what the total stock comp was in the fourth quarter, and what the current total shares outstanding?
Cecilia Welch
Yes, so I'm just going from the K, which gives me annual. So the stock comp was a $388,000, outstanding shares are a little over $9.2 million.
Jack Vander Aarde
Great. And just for clarity, is the 10-K going to be coming out today? I don't think I've seen it quite yet. But I imagine it'll be file today?
Michael DePasquale
Jack, unfortunately, we found out yesterday that it likely will not get filed today. We'll get filed next week. Unfortunately, our auditors -- and you're seeing this unfortunate, I suspect you see it as well across the board, just for shortage of resources and lack of resource, it's been very difficult for the auditors to get through the process with the number of clients they have.
Our audit firm was purchased by Marcum, mid last year. And so we have been transitioning into the new firm. And it's just taken some extra time the last two quarters to get all of the work done again with the transition and resources. So, we will file, but we will file late.
Jack Vander Aarde
Okay, understand. And yes, I have seen -- just to confirm, I have seen that across a lot of emerging growth companies as well. So that makes sense. Well, good. I'm happy to hear about your outlook for robust growth. That's it for me. Thanks for the questions.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you, Jack.
Operator
[Operator Instructions] I'm showing no more questions. This time the Q&A session has ended. And I will turn the call back over to Mr. Mike DePasquale, for closing remarks.
Michael DePasquale
Thank you everyone for joining today's call. We look forward to updating you on our Q1 call, which will be held in May. So it's not too far away. And as usual, we'll continue to provide regular updates via press releases for newsworthy developments as they happen. Once again, we thank you for taking the time to join us this morning. And have a great weekend everyone.
Operator
Conference has now concluded. Thank you for attending today's presentation. You may now disconnect.
Cybersecurity Solutions Provider BIO-key’s 2022 Revenues Increased 37% to $7.0M Reflecting Growing Base of Annual Recurring Revenue; Investor Call Today at 10am ET
Expects record quarterly revenue in Q1 2023
WALL, N.J., March 31, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key®International, Inc. (Nasdaq: BKYI), an innovative provider of workforce and customer Identity and Access management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, today reported results for its fourth quarter (Q4’22) and year ended December 31, 2022 (FY’22). BIO-key will host an investor call today at 10:00 a.m. ET (details below) to review its results and outlook.
Highlights:
Q4’22 revenues grew 88% to $1.7M and FY’22 revenues increased 37% to $7.0M, reflecting increasing software and services revenues, partially offset by lower hardware revenue in both periods.
Continued strength in higher education franchise, including recent IAM deployments with the University of Georgia’s Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College; National Louis University; and California’s Santa Rosa Junior College.
Growth in government sector customer base, including recent deployments with Orleans County, NY; Robeson County, NC; several Florida county governments; and six other county governments across the US.
Significant expansion of distribution partner network in FY’22 and early 2023. New partnerships include BeyondTrust; Bravanta Group; Progeso Networks & Security; and public-sector partner SYNNEX.
Growth in enterprise customer base in FY’22, including adding a large Southwest US Auto Group in Q4.
Launched Mobile Authenticator App (MobileAuth) in 2022, featuring both server-secured and on-device multi-biometrics, as well as additional IAM innovations at recent Gartner IAM Summit.
BIO-key Chairman & CEO Michael DePasquale commented, “BIO-key closed 2022 with solid revenue growth that enabled us to achieve full-year revenues of $7 million and hit the low end of our revenue guidance. We made significant progress building our customer footprint in 2022, expanding our base of high-margin, annual recurring revenue and increasing global awareness our solutions. With PortalGuard in the U.S. and Swivel Secure in Europe and the Middle East, we now serve over 600 customers around the world. Our business model is predominately software-as-a service (SaaS) or subscription, and the vast majority of our new business is partner based, reflecting the focus and strength of our sales model.
“Our net loss increased due to expenses associated with the acquisition of Swivel Secure Europe in March; our PortalGuard IDaaS marketing build; the continued development of enhanced features for PortalGuard and MobileAuth; and related personnel costs. In response, we have taken steps to streamline our headcount and overhead and are actively working to reduce our hardware inventories, which will have a positive impact in moving the company toward profitability in 2023.
“During 2022, we reported increased revenues in North America, Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia, but not in Africa, where continued delays in the rollout of government sponsored national ID programs have impacted our progress. We expect continued growth on a global basis in 2023 and are cautiously optimistic regarding the potential for forward movement in Africa.
“Innovation remains key to our business growth and success, as we continue to enhance our offerings of password-less and mobile IAM solutions that incorporate our proprietary Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) capabilities. 2022 milestones included launching our Mobile Authenticator App, to support server-secured and on-device multi-factor authentication, and introducing an enhanced admin panel for our PortalGuard, Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform.
“Our PortalGuard IDaaS franchise continues to expand across higher education, county governments, and enterprises. Customers prefer this highly efficient, cost-effective solution that delivers scalable, secure and easy to deploy user access – both on-site and off-site.
“To enhance the global awareness and reach of our solutions and brand, we have expanded our direct sales team, supported by traditional and digital marketing. As part of a management transition announced in January 2023, we hired Galen Rodgers as VP of Channels and Chad Carter as VP of Sales in North America, each of whom has more than two decades of industry sales experience with larger organizations in our field.
“With cybersecurity challenges accelerating at an unprecedented rate, industry forecasts suggest record level spending in 2023. Nearly a third of organizations have launched passwordless solutions, up from 22% last year, leaving substantial untapped opportunities for BIO-key. We believe our password-less multi-factor solutions with identity-bound biometrics, offer a unique and cost-effective solution for organizations across most verticals and use cases. Our global footprint of direct sales and distribution partner resources have developed a significant pipeline of sales projects and prospects, while also positioning us to pursue new opportunities.
Outlook
“The company is off to a strong start in 2023 and we expect that Q1’23 will significantly exceed revenue reported for our strongest quarter in 2022. Q1 results should also reflect a sequential decrease in overhead expenses vs. Q4’22. Reflecting this momentum, our expanded solutions set and distribution reach, as well as our sales pipeline, we are confident that 2023 will be a period of substantial top-line growth and bottom-line improvement. Supporting our outlook is our growing base of high-margin, contracted annual recurring revenues, which we estimated to be approximately $7M million per year at the beginning of 2023.”
Financial Results
Please note that the audit of our 2022 financial statements has not been completed as of the date of this press release and the financial statements and financial information provided below have not been finalized and are subject to change.
FY’22 revenue increased 37% to $7.0M from $5.1M in FY’21, due primarily to the acquisition of Swivel Secure Europe in March of 2022 and higher software license and service fees, partially offset by lower hardware sales. Q4’22 revenue increased 88% to $1.76M from $0.93M in Q4’21, also due to the acquisition and strength in software license fees and services revenue.
Gross profit rose to $5.0M in FY’22 versus $3.4M in FY’21 due to sales growth and a higher realized gross margin. FY’22 gross margin improved to 70.9% from 67.3% in FY’21, benefitting from a revenue mix that included more software revenue and less hardware revenue than in FY’21.
Total FY’22 operating expenses of $14.7M (vs. $8.4M in FY’21) included a non-cash impairment charge for goodwill of $1.8M, as well as increases in SG&A and Research, Development and Engineering expenses. The SG&A increase included marketing expenses, legal, professional and other fees and expenses incurred in connection with the acquisition of Swivel Secure and our secured loan financing, as well as bad debt expense and an allowance for doubtful accounts in Q4. Higher research, development & engineering expenses were due to increased personnel costs, including consulting, wages, and benefits for new employees and for continued product development, including the Q3 launch of significant enhancements for BIO-key’s MobileAuth application. As mentioned above, we have undertaken a number of expense reduction initiatives that will reduce our overall expenses in FY 2023.
Reflecting the impairment charge and higher overhead expenses in FY’22, BIO-key reported a net loss of $10.2M, or $1.26 per share vs. $5.1M, or $0.65 per share in FY’21. Q4’22 net loss was $5.1M, or $0.62 per share, compared to $2.0M, or $0.26 per share in Q4’21.
Balance Sheet
At year-end 2022, BIO-key had current assets of $9.4M, including $2.6M of cash and cash equivalents, $1.5M of accounts receivable, and $4.8M of inventory. The company had a current note payable and current portion of loans due totaling $2.2M.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Today, March 31st at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 9611876
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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; 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 Swivel Secure into our business; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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 "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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(UNAUDITED)
Three months ended
December 31, Years ended
December 31,
2022 2021 2022 2021
Revenues
Services $ 586,854 $ 288,191 $ 1,789,720 $ 1,273,354
License fees 1,043,460 544,199 4,584,052 2,555,809
Hardware 128,109 102,542 646,486 1,285,326
Total revenues 1,758,423 934,932 7,020,258 5,114,489
Costs and other expenses
Cost of services 167,930 174,815 722,152 686,175
Cost of license fees 301,740 49,871 906,417 183,199
Cost of hardware 114,723 147,365 411,001 803,555
Total costs and other expenses 584,393 372,051 2,039,570 1,672,929
Gross profit 1,174,030 562,881 4,980,688 3,441,560
Operating Expenses
Selling, general and administrative 3,326,923 1,752,344 9,642,200 6,028,360
Research, development and engineering 833,381 809,856 3,252,236 2,355,056
Impairment of goodwill 1,776,478 - 1,776,478 -
Total Operating Expenses 5,936,782 2,562,200 14,670,914 8,383,416
Operating Loss (4,762,752 ) (1,999,319 ) (9,690,226 ) (4,941,856 )
Other income (expense)
Interest income 17 299 233 4,075
Loss on foreign currency transactions (58,677 ) - (58,677 ) (50,000 )
Investment-debt security reserve (262,821 ) (30,000 ) (452,821 ) (60,000 )
Noncash interest expense (19,488 ) - (19,488 ) (18,000 )
Interest expense (6,851 ) - (10,462 ) -
Total other income (expense), net (347,820 ) (29,701 ) (541,215 ) (123,925 )
Net loss $ (5,110,572 ) $ (2,029,020 ) $ (10,231,441 ) (5,065,781 )
Comprehensive loss:
Net loss $ (5,110,572 ) $ (2,029,020 ) $ (10,231,441 ) $ (5,065,781 )
Other comprehensive loss – Foreign currency translation adjustment (13,252 ) - (242,602 ) -
Net loss available to common stockholders $ (5,123,824 ) $ (2,029,020 ) $ (10,474,043 ) $ (5,065,781 )
Basic and Diluted Loss per Common Share $ (0.62 ) $ (0.26 ) $ (1.26 ) $ (0.65 )
Weighted Average Common Shares Outstanding:
Basic and diluted 8,229,687 7,797,573 8,100,785 7,791,741
BIO-key International, Inc. and Subsidiaries
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(UNAUDITED)
December 31,
2022 2021
ASSETS
Cash and cash equivalents $ 2,635,522 $ 7,754,046
Accounts receivable, net 1,522,784 970,626
Due from factor 49,500 49,500
Note receivable, net of allowance - 82,000
Inventory 4,834,369 4,940,660
Prepaid expenses and other 327,045 216,041
Total current assets 9,369,220 14,012,873
Resalable software license rights 38,811 48,752
Investment – debt security, net - 452,821
Equipment and leasehold improvements, net 107,413 69,168
Capitalized contract costs, net 283,069 249,012
Deposits and other assets 8,712 8,712
Note receivable, net of allowance 146,000 113,000
Operating lease right-of-use assets 197,355 254,100
Intangible assets, net 1,762,825 1,298,077
Goodwill - 1,262,526
Total non-current assets 2,544,185 3,756,168
TOTAL ASSETS $ 11,913,405 $ 17,769,041
LIABILITIES
Accounts payable $ 1,108,279 $ 427,772
Accrued liabilities 1,009,123 828,997
Note payable, net of debt discount 1,577,172 -
Government loan – BBVA Bank, current portion 326,767 -
Deferred revenue - current 462,418 565,355
Operating lease liabilities, current portion 159,665 177,188
Total current liabilities 4,643,424 1,999,312
Deferred revenue, net of current portion 52,134 67,300
Government loan – BBVA Bank, net of current portion 120,000 -
Operating lease liabilities, net of current portion 37,829 86,974
Total non-current liabilities 209,963 154,274
TOTAL LIABILITIES 4,853,387 2,153,586
Commitments
STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
Common stock — authorized, 170,000,000 shares; issued and outstanding; 9,190,504
and 7,853,759 of $.0001 par value at December 31, 2022 and December 31, 2021,
respectively 919 786
Additional paid-in capital 122,108,612 120,190,19
Accumulated other comprehensive loss (242,602 ) -
Accumulated deficit (114,806,911 ) (104,575,470 )
TOTAL STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY 7,060,018 15,615,455
TOTAL LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY $ 11,913,405 $ 17,769,041
BIO-key Partners with Ethnos IT Solutions, Expanding the Reach of its Identity and Access Management Solutions Across Africa
WALL, N.J. and LAGOS, Nigeria, March 28, 2023 (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 strategic partnership with Ethnos IT Solutions to bring innovative IAM solutions to customers across Africa who are looking to enhance their cybersecurity with improved access security and seamless user experiences.
Ethnos is Africa’s leading cybersecurity and compliance management company. As a Value-Added Reseller, they provide Information Security, Risk Management, Cybersecurity and Compliance Management solutions to small and mid-sized enterprises, corporations, and government institutions across Africa, with a focus on the Banking, Fintech, Telecom, Education, and Oil and Gas sectors. The partnership with Ethnos further strengthens the international presence of BIO-key’s IAM and Identity-Bound Biometric solutions.
Ethnos joins BIO-key’s global Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) program which makes it easy for partners to develop new recurring revenue streams via BIO-key’s full line of solutions, including its award-winning PortalGuard® platform. PortalGuard supports multi-factor authentication with unique IBB methods, single sign-on, and self-service password reset, along with hardware solutions, such as fingerprint scanners and FIDO-key® security keys. BIO-key solutions provide customers with unparalleled flexibility in securing all their access management needs and use cases.
"We are very excited to partner with BIO-key. As renowned Cybersecurity experts and a leading Value-Added Reseller, this collaboration expands our capabilities and market reach and reinforces our commitment to delivering innovative solutions to our customers," said Peter Ejiofor, CEO of Ethnos.
"With this partnership we look forward to expanding our international channel program," said José Francês, VP of Sales for Africa, Europe, and Brazil at BIO-key. "With Ethnos we have the ability to provide our unique IAM and Identity-Bound Biometrics solutions to their customers across Africa, leveraging their reputation as a trusted VAR and respected leader in the cybersecurity market."
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises solutions.
About Ethnos IT Solutions (https://ethnos.com.ng/)
Ethnos IT Solutions has over a decade of experience helping businesses across Africa to prepare, eliminate, manage and respond swiftly to cyber-attacks. The Company help organizations to guard their assets against cyber-attacks by providing custom solutions that help customers deliver top-value to their stakeholders by protecting assets and enhancing their business performance through Security Engineering, Governance, Risk and Compliance, Managed Security Services, and Trainings.
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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Identity and Access Management, Cybersecurity Solutions Provider BIO-key, Hosts Q4 Conference Call Friday, March 31st at 10am ET
WALL, N.J., March 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) solutions, will review its Q4 and full year results in a conference call on Friday, March 31st at 10 a.m. ET. Results will be released prior to market open that morning. Mike DePasquale, Chairman & CEO and Cecilia Welch, CFO will lead the call and Q&A session.
Conference Call Details
Date / Time: Friday, March 31st at 10 a.m. ET
Call Dial In #: 1-877-418-5460 U.S. or 1-412-717-9594 International
Live Webcast / Replay: Webcast & Replay Link – Available for 3 months.
Audio Replay: 1-877-344-7529 U.S. or 1-412-317-0088 Int’l; code 9611876
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Recently received email:
“Hi xxxxxxxxx,
Recently customers have told me they felt safe because of the MFA they have in place – methods like push tokens, and email/SMS OTPs. The reality is that OTPs and push notifications are being hacked leading to account takeovers.
Passwordless with Identity-Bound Biometrics puts you back in control. It cannot be stolen, forgotten, shared, or intercepted.
I’d love to tell you more about Identity-Bound Biometrics and how it can help protect you and your organization from account takeovers. Please feel free to book some time on my calendar in the next week or so.
Best,
Billy Farrell
P: (732) 359-1117 | E: Billy.Farrell@bio-key.com
W: https://www.bio-key.com
BIO-key R logo
BIO-key International,
3349 Highway 138,
Wall,
NJ
Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.
BIO-key Showcases Identity-Bound Biometrics and Phone-less, Token-less, Passwordless Authentication at Gartner IAM Summit March 20-23
GRAPEVINE, Texas and WALL, N.J., March 16, 2023 (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 IAM innovations at the Gartner Identity and Access Management (IAM) Summit at the Gaylord Texan Hotel & Convention Center in Grapevine, Texas, for the second consecutive year. BIO-key will be available for meetings, Q&A sessions, and live demonstrations of its solutions, March 20-23rd at Booth 621.
Attendees are invited to stop by to discuss their IAM priorities and see live demonstrations of BIO-key’s solutions. Implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) and the elimination of passwords continue to be top priorities for enterprises across all industries. BIO-key will highlight its award-winning PortalGuard® platform, including the ability to offer phone-less, token-less, and passwordless workflows with unique Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities. Demonstrations will showcase PortalGuard’s support for a wide range of flexible authentication options and how IBB methods, such as a fingerprint scan, or palm scan or facial recognition using BIO-key’s MobileAuth™, allow secure desktop and web application login, while reducing the risk, inconvenience and high cost of traditional methods.
The Gartner Summit is an annual conference that brings together industry leaders and enterprise organizations to discuss the latest trends and challenges in the IAM business. This year's theme revolves around the concept that traditional IAM approaches are no longer adequate in today’s threat landscape. Keeping with the theme, BIO-key will meet with enterprises to discuss new approaches to secure the ever-expanding range of access scenarios for their employees, customers, and suppliers, where traditional authentication methods fail.
“From shared workstations to remote access and users who can't use phones or tokens, enterprises face a complex and ever-changing landscape of access requirements,” said Michael DePasquale, Chairman and CEO of BIO-key. “Traditional authentication methods are not sufficient in many scenarios, and enterprises must explore new solutions that can offer the flexibility to accommodate the needs of different users and various use cases, while maintaining the highest level of security. These challenges underscore the importance of new and ongoing discussions that we’ll have with attendees around the unique benefits of adding Identity-Bound Biometrics to their authentication, identity-first, and zero trust strategies.”
To learn more about BIO-key’s solutions including Identity-Bound Biometrics for passwordless workflows and PortalGuard please visit the BIO-key website.
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication and cybersecurity with biometric-centric, multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) software managing millions of users. Its cloud-based PortalGuard IAM solution provides cost-effective, easy to deploy, convenient and secure access to devices, information, applications, and high-value transactions. BIO-key's patented software and hardware solutions, with industry-leading Identity-Bound Biometric (IBB) capabilities, enable large-scale Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, as well as customized on premises 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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key and BeyondTrust Announce Integrated Partnership to Offer Identity-Bound Biometrics to Enhance Security for Privileged Remote Access
WALL, N.J., March 14, 2023 (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 the integration of their PortalGuard® Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) platform with BeyondTrust, a worldwide leader in intelligent identity and access security. This partnership and technology integration expands the presence of both companies in the partner ecosystem, provides enhanced security for privileged remote access and delivers a new level of confidence for customers that only authorized users are accessing critical systems, data, and applications.
Remote access pathways are targets for cyber attackers, who use them to compromise data and attain unauthorized access to IT networks. Weak authentication methods, such as improperly managed passwords, security questions that can be easily guessed by hackers, phone-based methods, and security tokens are unable to positively identify the person requesting access. Secure access is a critical need for the permanently expanded remote workforce, especially for individuals with heightened privileges, and it is crucial to take an identity-centric approach using Identity-Bound Biometrics to achieve Zero Trust.
BIO-key’s PortalGuard, integrated with BeyondTrust’s Privileged Remote Access solution that controls, manages, and audits the access of privileged employees, vendors, developers, and cloud ops engineers, now offers BeyondTrust customers a wide range of flexible authentication options, including Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB). IBB authentication methods that use a unique biometric to identify the person and cannot be handed over, shared, stolen, or forged, make it much more difficult for unauthorized users to gain access to critical systems and data. Offering a convenient user experience will also simplify the login process for users, as they don't need to remember complex passwords, carry phones or physical tokens, and will be able to choose methods that are most convenient for them.
“The BeyondTrust Technology Alliance Program enables integrations with BeyondTrust Privileged Access Management (PAM) solutions so that customers can maximize the value of their IT security investments,” said David Manks, VP Strategic Alliances of BeyondTrust. “We are pleased to add BIO-key to our program.”
The partnership further builds BIO-key’s integrations into the ecosystem of leading providers of IAM, PAM and Identity Governance and Administration (IGA) solutions, as enterprises look to achieve a holistic identity-first and zero trust strategy. BIO-key’s solutions address critical authentication gaps by introducing Identity-Bound Biometric methods to expand the security and convenience of efficient access to critical systems, data, and applications from anywhere, at any time.
“The integration between BIO-key's PortalGuard platform and BeyondTrust's Privileged Remote Access solution will provide customers with a new level of confidence that only authorized remote users are gaining access,” said Galen Rodgers, Vice President of Channel for BIO-key International. “Combining the ability to positively identify the person requesting access using BIO-key’s Identity-Bound Biometrics with BeyondTrust’s ability to manage and audit remote access, customers experience the benefits of greater risk reduction and a comprehensive PAM solution that is designed to meet the needs of a modern organization.”
Visit BIO-key’s website to find out more about their Identity-Bound Biometrics and multi-factor authentication solutions for securing remote access.
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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
City of Brawley, CA Selects PortalGuard® Identity and Access Management Cloud Platform for Enhanced Web Application and Workstation Security
BRAWLEY, Calif. and WALL, N.J., Feb. 27, 2023 (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), announced that the City of Brawley, CA selected its PortalGuard IDaaS® platform for improved security for web application and workstation access. The public sector continues to adopt BIO-key IAM solutions that support zero trust initiatives to protect critical data and information technology infrastructure and prevent cyber incidents.
Public sector organizations hold a wide array of sensitive information, making them highly sought targets for cybercriminals. Their data is attractive to hackers because it links vast amounts of information about citizens and other organizations through various platforms. Public sector information systems are also strained by rapid growth and the challenges of complex hybrid on-premises and cloud access, even as agencies face budgetary constraints. This creates increasing urgency and demand for security innovation and more cost-effective solutions such as BIO-key’s PortalGuard IDaaS – an enterprise-grade, cloud-based IAM platform which includes cutting-edge biometric authentication security capabilities as part of a wide array of multi-factor options.
BIO-key’s security consultants engaged with the City of Brawley’s IT team to analyze its requirements and provide recommendations on how to apply the best authentication security methods to protect the City’s constituents, employees, and data. The City’s core requirements focused on secure access to critical systems and data. Enhancing workstation login security was another vital requirement satisfied by PortalGuard’s Desktop integration with Microsoft Windows, which enabled the City’s smart cards as the primary authentication method, as well as alternative authentication methods for improved flexibility and user experience. PortalGuard IDaaS's robust multi-factor authentication options, single sign-on, and full-featured self-service password reset capabilities support the City’s users with secure authentication options and a frictionless experience, in a zero trust cybersecurity environment.
“BIO-key assists public sector organizations in implementing guidance provided by the Zero Trust Architecture team at the National Institute of Standards and Technology or NIST's National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence,” said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. “The public sector often chooses PortalGuard IDaaS over competitive solutions because of our unique ability to offer a wide range of highly secure authentication options at an attractive cost. Most government agencies we work with have limited IT budgets yet face a growing set of needs. This pressure makes ROI a high priority for investments in enhanced security. Our growing public sector success validates BIO-key’s strength in delivering the best authentication security options while meeting budgetary constraints.”
About BIO-key International, Inc. (www.BIO-key.com)
BIO-key is revolutionizing authentication with multi-factor identity and access management (IAM) solutions leveraging unique Identity-Bound Biometrics (IBB) capabilities for millions of users across thousands of organizations worldwide. BIO-key's patented software, hardware, and industry-leading biometric capabilities enable large-scale, on-premises, and cloud-based Identity-as-a-Service (IDaaS) solutions, including PortalGuard and WEB-key, 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 and identity access management industries; 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
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
BIO-key Partners with Europe’s Bravantic Group to Offer Transformative Identity Access Management Solutions in Europe, Africa, Brazil, and the Middle East
WALL, N.J. and LISBON, Portugal, Feb. 13, 2023 (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 strategic distribution partnership with Bravantic Group to bring its solutions to customers in Southern Europe, Africa, Brazil and the Middle East. Bravantic Group, which has over 2,500 customers and revenues of $100 million, joins BIO-key’s global Channel Alliance Partner (CAP) program.
Bravantic Group has a strong presence in Portugal, the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Brazil, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai. Over the last 26 years they have worked with major hardware and software manufacturers to offer a wide range of information technology and security solutions and services across a variety of industries and enterprises.
BIO-key continues to expand its footprint in high growth international markets by offering its leading identity solutions through key strategic partners like Bravantic. The CAP program makes it easy for partners to drive revenue via BIO-key’s full line of solutions and multifactor authentication options, including the award-winning PortalGuard® platform and hardware solutions including fingerprint scanners, which support Identity-Bound Biometric authentication and FIDO-key® security keys.
“Together Bravantic and BIO-key believe this partnership will deliver technological vitality to our stakeholders, through innovative and transformative cybersecurity solutions,” said Miguel Gomes, VP of Bravantic.
José Francês, BIO-key’s VP of Sales for Africa, Europe, and Brazil said, “We are pleased to welcome Bravantic as a prominent Value-Added Reseller to bring BIO-key’s industry-leading security solutions to bolster security and sustainability options across all of the group’s channels.”
About Bravantic Group (www.bravantic.com)
Formed in 2022, Bravantic is built on the legacy of its predecessor, Informantem, which launched 26 years ago. Bravantic has over 2,500 collaborators, with presence in Portugal, UK, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Brazil, Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Together with leading global hardware and software producers, Bravantic guarantees Information Technology solutions and services that are best suited to every company, to meet every challenge, with the trust provided by certifications: ISSO 9001, ISO14001 and ISO27001. The Bravantic brand conveys a new ambition and an impulse of modernization with the promise of evolving technology.
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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Robeson County, NC Selects PortalGuard® Identity and Access Management Cloud Platform for Enhanced Desktop Security and Insurance and Compliance Requirements
ROBESON, N.C. and WALL, N.J., Feb. 08, 2023 (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), announced that Robeson County, NC selected its PortalGuard IDaaS® platform for improved security for desktop and application access and to meet regulatory and insurance compliance. PortalGuard continues to gain traction helping the public sector combat the most imminent cyber security threats to protect critical infrastructure better.
Robeson County joins Robeson Community College in using PortalGuard for IAM requirements. The County's IT team is enhancing its workstation login security by using BIO-key's FIDO security keys as the primary authentication method for Microsoft Windows access. PortalGuard's robust multi-factor authentication options and its full-featured self-service password reset capabilities provide County users with secure authentication and a frictionless user experience that supports the implementation of a Zero Trust security model.
"In partnership with the National Association of Counties (NACo), we are proud to assist county leaders throughout the US in deploying security solutions that protect their mission-critical systems and constituents," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "County Governments are selecting BIO-key over competitive solutions because of our broad array of multi-factor authentication (MFA) capabilities and our ability to apply highly secure Identity-Bound Biometrics when needed. With PortalGuard, you can apply varying levels of security cost-effectively, while maintaining the same level of user convenience. This BIO-key strength is an important return on investment for our county government 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 and identity access management industries; 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
LinkedIn – Corporate: @BIOkeyIntl
Twitter – Investors: @BIO_keyIR
StockTwits: BIO_keyIR
BIO-key Media Contact:
Sarah Barsch
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
Higher Education Institutions Continue to Select BIO-key's PortalGuard IDaaS Cloud-based Cybersecurity Solution
WALL, N.J., Jan. 30, 2023 (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 four new Higher Education customer migrations to its PortalGuard IDaaS® cloud platform from existing on-premises PortalGuard deployments.
The institutions include:
Cerritos College - Norwalk, CA
Coastal Carolina Community College - Jacksonville, NC
College of the Mainland - Texas City, TX
Lassen Community College - Susanville, CA
A migration from on-premises to PortalGuard IDaaS enables customers to eliminate the hardware costs and resources of on-premises hosting while providing easier IAM and a better user experience. Enabling all users to access resources with one identity quickly drives vital productivity benefits with less friction, better security, and greater access control.
Higher Education institutions are attractive, high-value targets for cybercriminals because they hold masses of sensitive data, which is increasingly being accessed remotely. This dynamic stresses budgets and forces IT teams to adopt a more dynamic security response to cyber threats. PortalGuard IDaaS delivers greater flexibility and security options than competitive solutions and provides enterprise-grade protection to safeguard applications and data from increasing threats.
"Colleges and Universities looking to improve their security posture and migrate their cybersecurity strategy to the cloud are increasingly choosing PortalGuard IDaaS," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. "Our robust PortalGuard IDaaS platform delivers secure, flexible, and cost-effective solutions to address these challenges. Our mission is to provide customers with a cost-effective IAM platform that improves processes and security and delivers functionality for an optimal end-user experience."
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 and identity access management industries; 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:
Sarah Barsch
Matter Communications
BIO-key@matternow.com
914-260-3158
Investor Contacts:
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
212-924-9800
TIFTON, Ga. and WALL, N.J., Jan. 23, 2023 (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 the Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College (ABAC), one of 26 University System of Georgia members, has selected its PortalGuard IDaaS® platform. PortalGuard’s cloud-based Identity as a Service (IDaaS) solution supports over 3 million users, including students, faculty, staff, and administration at over 200 higher education institutions. PortalGuard delivers the highest levels of security with unmatched integration flexibility and authentication options, including biometrics.
Massive amounts of data stored by colleges and universities make them frequent targets of cybercriminals. To protect it against these threats, ABAC sought to expand its enterprise-wide IAM framework to provide more secure and frictionless access to institutional systems and critical data. PortalGuard IDaaS significantly improves security with multi-factor authentication (MFA) and single sign-on (SSO) for campus-wide applications, such as Microsoft 365 and Ellucian Banner. PortalGuard also substantially reduces help desk costs with self-service password reset capabilities, delivering immediate return on investment.
"Universities and colleges generally want to promote an open culture which can create vulnerability to cyber attacks they’re often not prepared to avoid," said Mark Cochran, President of BIO-key – PortalGuard. “BIO-key's robust PortalGuard IDaaS platform delivers a secure, flexible, and cost-effective solution to address these challenges."
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 and identity access management industries; 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:
Sarah Barsch
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 Receives Nasdaq Notification Regarding $1.00 Minimum Closing Bid Price Requirement and Has Period of 180 Days to Regain Compliance
WALL, N.J., Jan. 13, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- BIO-key International, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKYI), an innovative provider of biometric authentication and security solutions, today announced it has received a continued listing deficiency notice from The Nasdaq Stock Market LLC because its share price has not met the $1.00 minimum closing bid price requirement for 30 consecutive trading days – pursuant to Nasdaq Listing Rules 5550(a)(2) and 5810(c)(3)(A). This notice has no immediate effect on the Company’s Nasdaq listing or the trading of its common stock.
BIO-key has a 180-day period, until July 11, 2023, in which to regain compliance with the minimum bid price requirement. If at any time during this period, the closing bid price of BIO-key’s common stock is at least $1.00 per share for a minimum of ten consecutive trading days, Nasdaq will provide a written confirmation of compliance and the matter would be resolved.
Should BIO-key not regain compliance within the initial compliance period, it may be eligible for an additional 180-day compliance period if it meets the market value of publicly held shares requirement for continued listing, all other initial inclusion requirements for The Nasdaq Capital Market, except for the bid price requirement, and provides written notice of a plan to regain compliance during the second 180-day compliance period.
BIO-key’s Chairman and CEO, Mike DePasquale said, “We are confident in the global outlook for BIO-key in 2023, as well as our ability to regain listing compliance according to the Nasdaq guidelines. Our enthusiasm is based on our growing annual recurring SaaS license and maintenance revenue along with our expanding pipeline of additional customer opportunities.”
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 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, Europe, and other foreign markets; fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; 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 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.
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
Investor Contacts
William Jones, David Collins
Catalyst IR
BKYI@catalyst-ir.com
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BIO-key’s James Sullivan Discusses Strategy, IAM Solutions, Identity Bound Biometrics, Cyber Security Insurance and Compliance in Benzinga Interview
WALL, N.J., Jan. 10, 2023 (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 the release of a new interview of James Sullivan, Sr. VP of Strategy & Compliance and BIO-key’s Chief Legal Officer. Benzinga is a financial news and analysis service that provides timely, actionable insights for investors.
Interview Link:
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