Digital Barriers to provide facial recognition technology to Middle East ride-hailing app Careem

AIM-listed Digital Barriers, a solutions provider for the surveillance, security and safety markets, has won a contract for its facial recognition technology with Careem, a ride-hailing app in the Middle East and North Africa.

This contract is the first integration of the company’s facial recognition software into a mainstream commercial application and is expected to deliver recurring software revenue to the Digital Barriers until the end of 2018, with an option for an extension.

Careem - the ‘Uber of the Middle East and North Africa’ - has ride-hailing operations in more than fifty cities, across Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Morocco, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon and Kuwait.

Dubai-based Careem will integrate Digital Barriers' facial recognition technology into its driver smartphone application in a bid to help enhance the safety and security of passengers and drivers, and will also be used to secure its driver enrolment process.

Magnus Olsson, co-founder and chief experience officer at Careem, said: "In our efforts to simplify people's lives in the region, safety plays an unprecedented role and the integration of Digital Barriers' facial recognition technology will further bolster the confidence and faith our users have in the Careem brand.

“The biometric technology helps us strengthen our relationship with our users further by providing them with the reassurance that every Captain's [Careem drivers] credentials are being monitored at all times through a sophisticated network. It also adds another important layer to our Captain screening process by ensuring that only those individuals with a clean track record are invited to become part of the Careem family."

Digital Barriers chief executive Zak Doffman said: "As service providers across many industries now look to camera-embedded and smartphone application identity assurance as a key component of their business processes, the group believes that the market for such solutions is set for very material growth over the coming years.”

Doffman said that its facial recognition software has been designed to meet the requirements of military, intelligence and law enforcement customers and the contract win come off the back of a €3.5m multi-year contract won last year with one of Europe's largest ministries of defence.

Shares in Digital Barriers were down 1.57% to 26.58p at 0901 BST.