A silent revolution is brewing in a world drowning in passwords and PINs, where security often clashes with convenience. In the current world of technology entrenched in our day-to-day lifestyle security of our digital identity is essential. The rise of impersonation and fraud, resulting in drastic financial losses and security breaches are taking a toll on us.

Mr Subodh Narain Agrawal, a seasoned entrepreneur and avid problem seeker by nature, realized this problem of the rising trend of identity theft across the globe, through his personal life challenges. He founded Biocube, the world’s first AI-driven contactless, multifactor, multimodal biometrics with integrated data analytics platform. Biocube’s unique product architecture and technology competencies make it perfect for use cases across industries like immigration, border security, banking, travel, education, etc.

Subodh gave us his vision about the company and more in-depth insights about the evolving market landscape in a candid interview.

Sir, as a budding startup in the industry, could you take us back to the beginning of your journey? What motivated you to step into this dynamic ecosystem? 

The innovation of Biocube resulted from my struggles, beginning with problems I faced while applying for a visa. During one of my trips where I was required to get a visa, I had to make multiple visits to the office due to various issues like mismatched photos, problems with the paperwork, and a new law mandating the linking of biometrics to a visa, among other things.

The application process for a visa may take up to a year due to the large backlog at the offices.

By the time I was figuring out a way of coping with this problem, I had become a victim of identity fraud and incurred heavy financial loss. I later learned that financial fraud affects millions of people every year, besides governments, businesses, etc. So, we brought together a team of experts in 2017 and started working on the concept. It took us a year to construct a spoof-proof and tamper-proof AI platform. In 2020, we completed the re-engineering. A year later, we upgraded the product and conducted beta testing.

And I’m glad that our invention, research, and technology advancements cater to the next-gen problems. In 2022, we initiated our go-to-market by presenting our products and services to government organizations and businesses.

As the world’s first and only multifactor, multimodal, artificial intelligence-enabled biometric identification technology, Biocube truly rewrites the rules for identity verification. In today’s digital world, identity verification is essential because we use our laptops and smartphones to access services online. Furthermore, we need to access these services without compromising the user experience or the highest standard of user data security—both of which are made feasible by Biocube.

Biocube helps to eradicate fraud by stopping ID theft, expediting verification, and guaranteeing user convenience at every stage. We at Biocube provide a variety of solutions to governments and organizations. For instance, Bio-Visa guarantees contactless and frictionless processing of biometric visa applications, saving consumers time, money, and hassle while guaranteeing increased national security through document verification and other means.

Similarly, BioKYC is designed to provide fully automated digital remote KYC without any possibility of identity theft. Insurance providers, banks, and other businesses can utilize this to open new accounts faster.

Likewise, with IDenTrip, paper document verification is unnecessary for airport passenger journeys. Our recently developed Video Analytics engine can do object detection and AI-based automatic activity monitoring. It can also provide real-time intelligence to a live dashboard, enabling preemptive actions and improved capacity planning.

The way educational centres handle attendance is going to be completely changed by AttendFy. With the use of facial recognition technology, the solution tracks attendance for both individuals and groups. Because of its multimodal features, educational institutions can stop using specialized hardware because it offers a CAPEX-friendly solution with added classroom monitoring functions.

We also developed TruNtrance to enhance the safety and security of digital access management. The self-service spoof-proof solution incorporates features like liveness detection, location tracking, and timestamps for access and attendance management. Edge devices can be used with the AI-driven, network-independent solution.

Today, we offer solutions for visa and immigration, law and order, border security, tourism, agriculture, healthcare, education, and many other industries. I aim to bring Biocube to its full potential and revolutionize the worldwide digital identity. We successfully conducted multiple pilots globally and are already converting them into commercial contracts in the government and the private sector in India, Africa, Australia, the United States, etc.

Biocube has emerged as India’s budding startup company. Could you share the guiding philosophy that has propelled your organization’s success?

Becoming a game-changer in the market through innovative thinking is our key principle. This guiding concept influences every choice we make, guaranteeing that our contactless biometric identity solutions satisfy our clients’ immediate needs and foresee and adjust to the rapidly changing demands of the digital age.

We are constantly investing in cutting-edge technology and research to keep our products at the forefront of the market. Our team is committed to pushing the envelope of what is feasible.

Everyone, regardless of background or demography, should have access to technology. Because of the ease with which people from various backgrounds may utilize our solutions, our technology will catalyze digital inclusion and empowerment.

Our goal with Biocube is to improve security and find a solution to the worldwide problem of fraud and identity theft that we can bring within the reach of the common person’s hand so that they can use the technology to solve a critical problem of their daily life.

Please brief our audience about Biocube’s USPs and how you are currently positioned as one of the best startups.

We are the world’s most unique and advanced biometric technology solution provider. The key differentials include multimodal functionality, multifactor contactless biometrics, and a specialized hardware-agnostic nature.

In today’s digital world, users need to authenticate their identity to consume various services and get access on a go basis. There lies the importance of a system like Biocube, which can authenticate users accurately using their various biometric characteristics in a remote contactless fashion across a wide range of devices – iOS or Android smartphone, tablet, desktop, or laptop camera- and will perform frictionlessly.

Besides its multimodality, the technology supports multifactor-biometric authentication, meaning you can use your face, voice, fingerprints, palm, or eye to achieve the end objective. Our contactless biometrics come with unique features. For example, our face recognition technology can capture multiple faces in a frame. It has an integrated passive liveness detection capability. Similarly, the voice recognition technology assisted with speech diarization, allowing the administrators to acknowledge the end users on a conference call separately. Also, our voice-matching technology can verify that the user is speaking any language in the world.

The system is built on a unique Distributed Data Architecture for which we have been granted a patent in the US. This ensures maximum user privacy protection and data security, paramount for any company dealing with sensitive user data like biometrics.

Additionally, the platform comes with an integrated data analytics module, which is a unique proposition for an identity platform. Traditional identity platforms do not capture the relevant data points and analyse them in real-time, resulting in lost intelligence. We are plugging this by putting a data analytics engine on top of the biometric verification platform, which does different types of predictive and prescriptive analytics and gives crucial decision support for the administration or the policymakers.

The random authentication protocols and features like liveness detection, Distributed Data Architecture, AES 256 encryption, etc., make it highly secure. The online/offline functionality helps grant access, mark attendance, or provide seamless authentication, as the user data gets uploaded onto the server whenever it finds a network connection.

Digitalization and technological advancements are crucial aspects of the modern startup ecosystem. How does Biocube integrate these principles into its core functioning and contribute to a technovative future?

Our product selection makes it quite evident that we are committed to digitization. We use a state-of-the-art platform to provide secure, contactless identification verification solutions. Thanks to our continuous investment in research and development, we can stay at the forefront of technological breakthroughs and push the boundaries of what is possible in biometric identity verification.

We stay flexible in reacting to market developments and establish ourselves as leaders in the rapidly changing field of digital identity solutions. Our commitment to digitalization and technology is more than just a tactic at Biocube; it’s a way of life that drives us toward a time when innovation and technology will come together to completely reimagine the potential of biometric identity verification.

Biocube has likely faced its share of challenges as a leader in the budding startup sector. Could you share an instance where your team’s resilience and ingenuity triumphed over adversity?

Biocube was established in 2017 and wanted to expand its workforce rapidly. The pandemic shook us deeply. However, we agilely coped with and adopted the new way of life and business landscape. We used the opportunity to scale up our research and developments, in which our employees’ persistence and focused mindset played a key role.

The company’s ongoing challenge to expand its workforce persisted after the COVID-19 pandemic due to limited resources in the AI sphere and a lack of requisite experience. However, today, many candidates possess extensive knowledge in AI, ML, Big Data Analytics, and other technological domains. We initiated the recruitment process after the pandemic.

Today, we are a fast-paced company with a rapidly growing workforce, reaching 100 this year. We have a group of people from various backgrounds spearheading multiple departments simultaneously. Our global expansion will boost our workforce to 500-1000 in the next five years.

What would you advise other budding entrepreneurs who aspire to venture into the startup space?

Entrepreneurs should allow passion to be their driving force. Select a project that aligns with a real need or problem that excites you. Adopt a mindset of lifelong learning and keep up with developments in technology and industry trends. As you assemble a competent and diverse team, remember that cooperation and common values are essential. Put the needs of your customers first. Seek out and value their feedback to improve your products and services.

Develop resilience in the face of difficulties and see failures as chances for improvement. Given the dynamic nature of the startup ecosystem, adaptability is essential. Engage in deep networking within the startup community to cultivate relationships and seek mentorship. Take care of your money, promote your accomplishments, and grow from your mistakes.

Finally, maintain your integrity in your vision while being open-minded to helpful criticism. The experience of starting a business is life-changing and requires persistence, creativity, and an unwavering dedication to achieving your entrepreneurial goals in the booming Indian market.

Looking to the future, what is your vision for Biocube? 

We are living in a world of constant technology disruptions. New technologies are coming day in and day out. New use cases are being built, and there are evolving business models around the new age technologies like generative AI, blockchain, metaverse, etc.

Technology companies, especially startups, should constantly strive to leverage these technological innovations and build their niche to stay relevant in the market.

Biocube, as a unique biometric company, has a roadmap to constantly adapt and innovate in line with this technological revolution and stay ahead of the competition. Also, from the societal perspective, startups have a moral responsibility to make the world habitable for our future generations, to which Biocube is adding its beats through a more technology-driven, hardware-less, and paperless way of digital identity verification.

For more information, please visit https://biocube.ai/.