The company says the funds will be used to bring to market its patented biometric authentication product, Pay By Touch, which allows consumers to pay for purchases in one step by using finger imaging to link them to their payment accounts at the point of sale without having to present plastic payment cards, paper cheques or cash.

The service uses unique algorithms created during enrollment which are matched during the payment process to verify the consumer's identity. The fingerprint reader allows consumers to access accounts electronically at the checkout counter.

Pay By Touch, formed after Solidus Networks' acquisition of Indivos Corp, says it is building products and services on a broad patent library that includes 22 issued and 13 pending patents covering tokenless, biometrically authenticated financial transactions, age verification and customer loyalty applications.

The firm has also forged a business development partnership with Accenture.

Among the investors are new CEO Craig Ramsey and payment processing industry veteran Eula Adams, both of whom have joined the firm's board of directors.

Ramsey was previously EVP of worldwide sales at Siebel until 2001. Prior to this he held executive roles at pre-IPO phases of Amdahl Corp and Oracle Corp where he ran the US sales organisation.

Commenting on the funding, Ramsey says the Pay By Touch service will revolutionise the checkout lane much as ATM machines revolutionised bank branch operations: "Pay By Touch is the easy, safe and secure way to pay, reducing consumer risks while allowing merchants to speed up the purchasing process and reduce cash management and transaction costs."

Eula Adams is a former senior executive vice president of First Data. During his tenure at First Data, Adams also served as president of the vendor's resources and merchant services division. Prior this he was chief operating officer of Western Union, which had been acquired by First Data. He has also served on the board of directors of several companies, including MasterCard International, Wells Fargo Merchant Services and NYCE Corporation.

Also elected to the board of directors was Robert Shaw, currently the chairman and CEO of ArcSight. Shaw was previously CEO of Silicon Valley Internet Capital (SVIC) and CEO of USWeb/CKS until March 2000, when the company was acquired by Whittman-Hart. Prior to this he was executive VP in charge of worldwide consulting services and vertical markets at Oracle, and a partner at both Booz-Allen & Hamilton and at PricewaterhouseCoopers.

In addition, Pay By Touch has revealed its new executive management team which includes president and founder and chairman of the board of directors, John Rogers.

Rogers was founder and CEO of Rogers Development and was previously COO of Daniels and LaBore. Prior to this he was VP of corporate strategy at ION Corporation.

Brian Miller has been appointed EVP strategic alliances and member of the board of directors at Pay By Touch. Miller was previously the managing partner of Accenture's consumer products/retail practice for the west coast and led the Silicon Valley Business Launch Centre.

Nhan Nguyen, former chief technology officer (CTO) of account aggregation services firm Yodlee joins as CTO/chief information officer (CIO). Prior to Yodlee, Nguyen was SVP, technology operations at iPin - a stored value and payment transaction management middleware company - as well as SVP, enterprise technology and architecture at Bank of America, and executive director, world bank implementations at TRW.

Eric Bachman joins the executive management team as chief operating officer (COO). He was previously COO of NextBank and has also held SVP roles at BankServ and US Bank's merchant card services business. Prior to US Bank, Bachman worked at Wells Fargo.

David Siminoff has been appointed CFO. He was formerly analyst and portfolio manager for 10 years at investment firm Capital Research. Prior to this he was the founder of EastNet, a syndicate barter company in Eastern Europe.

Caroline McNally, former EVP of global brand management at Visa International, joins as chief marketing officer. Prior to joining Visa, McNally was at MasterCard where she was VP, marketing in New York and acting general manager for EMEA, in Paris. She began her career at American Express.

Steve Zelinger has been appointed general counsel. Zelinger served for four years as SVP and global director of litigation and regulatory affairs at Visa International. Prior to this he was a partner in the Washington office of Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and has also worked at the US Department of Justice in Washington.

Jon Siegal joins Pay By Touch as VP, sales, Americas. He was previously VP, global sales at Siebel and began his career in 1988 at IBM where he was responsible for sales to the media and entertainment Industries.