Ricardo Amper, Incode Technologies Founder and CEO: “We are revolutionizing identity verification, providing an AI-powered, secure, seamless, and equitable onboarding and authentication experience to reimagine societal trust.”

The foundation for growth and overcoming contemporary economic challenges lies in societies built on trust. Evidence already shows that in countries where online trust is higher, economies grow at a faster pace.

As the leading provider of world-class identity solutions, Incode is revolutionizing the trust industry by transforming Identity Verification and Authentication across every major vertical, providing the most accurate, flexible, and easy-to-integrate proprietary technology. Sectors like financial services, hospitality, entertainment, and healthcare are globally adopting biometrics as a customer-facing identity verification solution to streamline access to new products and services while improving privacy, security, and the overall user onboarding experience. Incode’s fully automated platform seamlessly goes beyond identity verification, covering the entire customer funnel including Onboarding (KYC, KYB, Age Verification) and Passwordless Authentication to reduce fraud and increase conversion rates with the highest privacy and safety standards. As more organizations adopt these technologies and biometrics become mainstream, the industry needs Integrated Identity Platforms (IIP) that prioritize privacy, security, and customer trust above all else. Incode is pioneering the identity revolution.

In conversation with Ricardo Amper, Founder and CEO of Incode Technologies

Describe how your business leverages/is built on emerging technology:

The evolving threat landscape coupled with the need for better user experience has driven a shift in identity verification. Threat actors continue to become more sophisticated, leading enterprises to implement new, innovative products and solutions to protect their sensitive data. Organizations across industries including banks, airlines, hoteliers, stadiums, and hospitals are adopting biometrics as a customer-facing identity verification solution to streamline and improve privacy, security, and the overall user experience.

Companies that store sensitive data are also struggling to find ways to correctly and securely manage this data, especially given recently introduced user privacy laws and compliance put in place in the US. Enterprises are facing fragmented privacy regulation and data leaks across various local governments. These challenges are driven by centralized, legacy models.

With the support of AI and automation, we are providing a more seamless and frictionless onboarding experience for customer identity verification. Traditional and outdated systems require internet access and don’t have capabilities for verification on the edge, which causes friction in the user experience. Efficiently and securely storing data directly on the device allows users to control the data that’s shared and access that information seamlessly.

Biometrics are also driving the use of fraud-resistant, AI/ML solutions without bias, errors, delays, or privacy concerns.

• Biometrics is a top solution for fraud detection and preventing spoofing attempts in crypto, finance, retail, and banking. In the coming years, we’ll see financial institutions and fintech providers utilizing biometrics to detect fraud quickly and seamlessly without compromising user experience or privacy. This advancement is particularly useful for onboarding new accounts at scale and verifying payments and any other transactions.
• Biometrics also help with legal and regulatory compliance including anti-money laundering (AML) laws that prevent online criminals and terrorist organizations from successfully conducting illegal and malicious activities.
• Businesses use biometrics for age verification to instantly verify a customer's age to confirm he/she/they meet(s) legal requirements for age-restricted products or services. This process attests users meet a platform’s age requirements without compromising their privacy or exposing PII.

Tell us in brief how Incode prioritizes privacy and trust:

Incode believes that privacy is the enabler of the next generation of physical identity, and we prioritize customer privacy above all else. We anonymize biometric features as a face template for subsecond comparison face matching. Many use cases employ 1:1 authentication, where a client provides a unique identifier such as a reservation number when booking a hotel, and our solution matches your face’s anonymized biometric template connected to your booking code.

We offer the flexibility to keep all sensitive information directly on a customer's device to comply with varying local regulations or adapt to the specific needs and nature of the customer.

At Incode, we emphasize automation and machine learning (AI/ML) technology that puts privacy first. By opting out of human-in-the-loop verification and leveraging unbiased AI to verify and authenticate, data is processed more securely. Other tools in the industry traditionally process IDs and sensitive data through call centers with mass amounts of employees and servers, which increases exposure and risk to bad actors. Incode processes data directly on the device and utilizes an in-house developed algorithm to ensure maximum privacy, security, and accuracy, as well as to limit the number of hands touching a customer’s personal data.

Incode’s Integrated Identity Platform, Incode Omni, ranks among the highest for accuracy, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Our ‘Tamper check and ID liveness’ utilizes fully in-house developed AI and verification technology to detect potential fake documents that have been tampered with or photoshopped, allowing us to identify and authenticate if a photo has been altered, contains manipulated images, is a photo of a photo, or is a photograph of a screen versus a person.

Q. If you had one piece of advice to someone just starting out, what would it be?

My biggest piece of advice is to think big, to not limit your dreams, and to always strive for more. This goes beyond merely producing an exceptional product. It's also about the work that happens behind the scenes, the aspects that customers may not see but directly influence their safety and trust in the company. You need to consider how you're protecting user privacy and data, and how diligently and responsibly you're handling sensitive information. Always aim to provide not only a product or service that makes your users happy but also one that assures them that they are in safe hands. As you build your technology and business, strive to incorporate the best possible technology in the back end. This commitment to security and privacy will pay off in the long run, cultivating customer loyalty and trust. Always think of user safety and data protection as integral to the user experience, because they truly are.

Q. What does the future hold for Incode and its customers? What exciting things are on the way?

Biometrics have become mainstream, and the opportunities for it to improve user experience are nearly limitless. The industry needs solution providers that prioritize privacy, security, and trust above everything, and Incode is leading the identity revolution.

Incode is doubling down on incorporating all identity signals into its automation and orchestration abilities. We are also leveraging our full range of analytics and dashboard capabilities to forge additional partnerships that support the entire identity lifecycle of our users, ranging from Mobile Intelligence to Fraud Tagging, in a multitude of industries and use cases for biometric authentication technology.

In addition to product growth and innovation, Incode strengthens its offerings through strategic partnerships and integrations. Most recently, Incode partnered with Black Ink Tech, to make ‘one identity everywhere’ a reality by introducing a powerful solution that creates a global, ubiquitous digital identity that is simple to validate and universally available. Incode also partnered with Mama Money, a rapidly growing fintech company offering cross-border money transfers and banking services, to bring advanced identity verification systems to strengthen the fight against fraud and financial crime in the fintech industry.

Meet the leader behind the success of Incode Technologies

Ricardo Amper is the Founder and CEO of SF-based Incode Technologies. Ricardo is a serial entrepreneur and visionary leader with over 20 years of experience founding and leading fast-growing, disruptive companies. Ricardo founded Incode in 2015 with a vision to transform the digital identity marketplace and the ways humans experience their identity journeys. Ricardo currently lives in San Francisco, from where he continues implementing Incode’s vision of One Identity Everywhere to facilitate people's access to services, contribute to reducing inequalities within societies, and provide freedom, and opportunities for growth while preserving the fundamental right for users to control their identity information.

“Incode’s autonomous and continuously-tested identity verifications solutions are reimagining the trust between customers and the organizations that serve them.”