Founded in 2009 and headquartered in Oslo, Zwipe has undertaken several biometric payment card pilots across Europe and the Middle East, partnering with Visa, Mastercard and Gemalto to test out its technology with a series of banks, including most recently Italy's Intesa Sanpaolo.

The company, which consists of a team 32 people, has since inception raised a total of $27.6 million in equity, debt and grants, including a $2.6 million award from the the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 programme in December 2018.

In its prospectus, the firm points to figures from Edgar Dunn and Company, which suggest that the total addressable market for biometric dual interface payment cards in circulation was estimated to reach a potential of approximately 20 million cards in 2019 and 150 million cards in 2021, growing to 870 million cards in 2023 and 6.8 billion cards in 2027.

André Løvestam, CEO of Zwipe, says that the firms aims for commercialisation of Zwipe-enabled biometric payment cards in H2 2019 followed by continued scale-up in 2020 and beyond.

"Payment cards enabled with Zwipe technology offer consumers the convenience of contactless and the security and peace of mind of biometrics," he says. "With a strengthened balance sheet and shareholder base, we will be well positioned to capture the opportunities ahead.”

He says new investors in Norway and Sweden have pre-committed to subscribe for a total of 4.5 million shares priced at NOK20 per share to the tune of $10.3 million in a private placement. The second tranche, in the amount of up to $3.4 million, will be in the form of a public offering of up to 1.5 million shares to retail investors.