4G Identity eyes $50mn project in Kenya

4G Identity Solutions, a Hyderabad-based provider of biometric-based identification technologies for large-scale implementation, is eyeing a voter ID project valued at $50 million (Rs 250 crore) in East African country Kenya. Global tenders for the project will be called for on March 16.

“The project involves issuance of election ID cards for 15 million people, for which we have already developed the solutions. The project needs to be executed in eight weeks. We are already in talks with a couple of venture capital and private equity players to raise the money,” Srini Tripuraneni, chairman and chief executive of 4G Identity, told mediapersons here on Wednesday.

The 10-year-old company, which has executed 50 projects in India so far, entered the overseas market by bagging an order from one of the African countries, Republic of Chad, for military identification. It has also been shortlisted for a criminal identification project by the Dhaka police. “We are now looking at other African countries for orders,” he said.

4G Identity has developed and deployed the enrollment application for the first proof-of-concept for the unique identification project (Aadhaar). It is one of the three BSP (biometric solutions provider) consortiums providing de-duplication and authentication solutions, besides a biometric device supplier and empanelled enrollment agency for the project across 12 states in India.

“We recently closed 18 million enrollments, standing second in the country, while Wipro is one million ahead of us. Another 8 million enrollments are in the process,” Tripuraneni said, adding 4G’s concentration was on civil IDs as welfare schemes were not reaching the targeted beneficiaries.

Tripuraneni said the company was working with the AP State Data Centre, set up under the National eGovernance Plan, as a supplier of infrastructure and for porting the Aadhaar data. The porting will be completed in a month from now, he added.

The company, which has an order book of over Rs 300 crore to be executed in the next one year, reported revenues of Rs 55 crore in the last financial year. “We expect our revenues to double this year triggered by various state government initiatives and the Aadhaar project. We will go for an initial public offering after we cross the Rs 200-crore mark next year,” he said.