• Griaule, a startup incubated at Unicamp, was recognized in a biometric test conducted by the Department of Commerce

• In the competition focused on border control, the company placed third

The Brazilian company Griaule was ranked sixth in the world and first in Latin America in biometric recognition by NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology), an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The company, which was incubated at Unicamp, was one of 32 evaluated in the MINEX III test, the program for continuous testing of fingerprint algorithms. In the test focused on border control, it ranked third. The test simulates passenger identification by simultaneously scanning two fingers. Griaule recorded an error rate of 0.022%, a result close to that of the first-place finisher, which achieved 0.020%.

Overall, the test measures the accuracy and interoperability of fingerprint recognition algorithms used in civil identification systems, document issuance, public safety, and immigration.

“This test simulates a common scenario at immigration checkpoints, where passengers place two fingers on the scanner. The more accurate the algorithm, the shorter the wait time and the lower the risk of identity fraud,” said the company’s business director, Thiago Ribeiro.

Griaule's technology is already being used in large-scale public systems. Since 2014, the company has been providing biometric processing services to the TSE (Superior Electoral Court), which has a voter database of approximately 160 million voters.

The systems are also used to issue more than 200 million identity documents in Brazil. On the international market, the company states that its technology has been adopted by the Pentagon for a biometric identification project focused on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and has been integrated into Mexico’s criminal justice system since 2024.

This article was published in Folha de S.Paulo on July 8, 2026, and can be accessed at this link.