With a million-dollar contract won through a bidding process, a company from Campinas (SP) will supply biometric identification systems to the United States Department of Defense. Griaule's technology, already used nationally by the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), will be operated by the governments of Afghanistan and Iraq - with multimodal software that, as well as dealing with fingerprints, will also include palm prints (from the palms of the hands), facial images and the irises of the eyes.read more

"We'll have an implementation period of around a year and the total term of the contract is five years, with the possibility of an extension for further periods," explains Griaule's operational manager, Renato Burdin. With the tender won in September this year, the company secured its biggest deal with the US government, worth US$75 million. On previous occasions, both the country's border control and state police have used Griaule's biometric identification algorithm.

"The contract we have now signed is interesting because of its complexity. The system will use various biometric modalities, so it's very interesting to implement so many modalities in a system as critical as those [in Iraq and Afghanistan]," says the manager. Systems of this nature are consulted for various purposes, according to Burdin - making it possible to use them for both civil and criminal investigations. "Today, these two nations already have biometric identification systems, which were implemented years ago and have already outlived their useful life. That's why there was a need to update these systems with new functionalities," says the manager.

Other businesses

With more than 4,000 clients and business in 70 countries, Burdin says that the main market for the company, founded in 2002, is Brazil. "We have our most important cases in the country, both in the civil identification and banking segments," he explains. In addition to the TSE, the company also serves Caixa Econômica Federal.

Among the international business already done, Burdin highlights the issuing of national documents in Israel, a partnership with a bank in South Africa and the supply of technology used in the identification of transport vehicles in India. "To ensure the safety of the population, some provinces use our technology with taxi drivers," he explains. In 2017, Griaule recorded a turnover of R$16 million.

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