Insider Media, February 2013
North Tyneside biometric manufacturer has secured £250,000 of funding from the Finance for Business North East Accelerator Fund and will use the cash to expand its team further.
Ievo recently moved to new, larger premises on the Tyne Tunnel Trading Estate and has bagged a number of contracts to install its fingerprint scanners, including at two Premier League football grounds.
The company designs and manufactures one of the world’s smallest and most advanced fingerprint scanners, and its products meet the growing demand for access control in airports, hospitals, offices, data centres and hotels.
It currently has two biometric finger-readers in its expanding product portfolio – the ievo Micro and the ievo Ultimate. The ievo readers are available for both internal and external use, can be used in temperatures as low as -20 celsius, will still read the fingerprint in wet conditions and will work through some latex gloves.
Following two previous investments totalling £300,000 from the Accelerator Fund, which is managed by Northstar Ventures and backed by the European Regional Development Fund and the European Investment Bank, business has taken off for ievo.
The company is averaging 25 new installations a month in locations such as primary schools, banks at Canary Wharf, casinos, the London Bridge Station redevelopment site and at two Premier League football grounds.
Director Stuart Ging said: “The business has really progressed over the last quarter and revenues are growing significantly. We have just recorded our best-ever month, and this new investment from Northstar is going to help to expand the team and create further growth.
“We are also looking to enhance the current product range toallow an almost unlimited number of users to be enrolled on a system at any one time – compared to the standard 8,000 users at present. As a result of these enhancements, new markets will open for both ourselves and our customers.”
Rebecca Crawford, investment manager at Northstar, added: “I am delighted to announce our continued investment into ievo. This third investment will allow the company to accelerate its growth as well as creating a further five management jobs in customer service, technical and export roles.
“Further technical developments will enable variations on the current product range, allowing penetration into new larger markets both domestic and international.”