阿里巴巴的支付子公司螞蟻金服近日已經(jīng)收購了EyeVerify。后者是一家光學(xué)識(shí)別技術(shù)的廠商，其產(chǎn)品被富國銀行以及其他美國各地的地方銀行和信用社所使用。

彭博社報(bào)道稱，這次收購的價(jià)格約為7,000萬美元，不過熟知EyeVerify內(nèi)情的消息人士表示這一數(shù)字并不準(zhǔn)確，實(shí)際的收購價(jià)格為1億美元，而且是全現(xiàn)金交易。

這筆交易十分重要，部分原因在于隨著銀行開始尋找應(yīng)對(duì)詐騙的新方法，生物識(shí)別工具——例如讓客戶用眼球登錄賬戶的眼球識(shí)別軟件，正變得越來越流行。

正如《財(cái)富》6月關(guān)于EyeVerify的一篇報(bào)告中指出的那樣，這項(xiàng)技術(shù)可以檢測客戶眼白處的血管，準(zhǔn)確度高達(dá)99.8%，堪比指紋感應(yīng)。銀行會(huì)把EyeVerify技術(shù)加入他們的應(yīng)用中，讓用戶用眼球登錄賬號(hào)，查詢余額或是付款。

如今，EyeVerify成為了螞蟻金服的一部分，這讓他們有機(jī)會(huì)接觸到使用支付平臺(tái)支付寶（Alipay）的超過4.5億用戶，其中大部分來自中國。

在電話采訪中，EyeVerify的首席執(zhí)行官托比·拉什表示：“現(xiàn)在，我的平臺(tái)比以前大得多。有螞蟻金服作為母公司，我們可以利用他們的資源和穩(wěn)定性，把未來的發(fā)展規(guī)劃到20年以后?！?/p>

EyeVerify在美國的主要業(yè)務(wù)是個(gè)人銀行，與此不同的是，他們在中國的任務(wù)是認(rèn)證支付寶P2P網(wǎng)絡(luò)上的支付，拉什認(rèn)為這與貝寶（Paypal）很像。

拉什補(bǔ)充道，這筆交易已經(jīng)得到了美國銀行業(yè)監(jiān)管者的同意。盡管中國公司收購美國銀行業(yè)技術(shù)的核心公司可能會(huì)引發(fā)關(guān)于安全問題的擔(dān)憂，但拉什表示EveVerify沒有收集或儲(chǔ)存任何生物識(shí)別信息。整個(gè)眼球識(shí)別過程都在消費(fèi)者的設(shè)備上完成。

與此同時(shí)，這家位于密蘇里州的公司還將保留全部團(tuán)隊(duì)，繼續(xù)在當(dāng)?shù)匕l(fā)展。

“未來我們會(huì)繼續(xù)待在現(xiàn)在的堪薩斯城，讓公司的規(guī)模發(fā)展到兩倍、三倍于現(xiàn)在。管理層的所有人都會(huì)留下，整家公司也是一樣。”

EyeVerify成立于2012年，在被收購之前，他們已經(jīng)募集了1,040萬美元的資金。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng))

譯者：嚴(yán)匡正

Alibaba’s payments arm, Ant Financial, has acquired EyeVerify, a maker of optical recognition technology used by Wells Fargo along with dozens of regional banks and credit unions across the country.

Bloomberg reported the purchase price as around $70 million, but a person close to EyeVerify says this is incorrect than that the actual amount was $100 million, and that it was an all-cash transaction.

The deal is significant partly because biometric tools such as eye-recognition software, which lets customers log into accounts with their eyes, are becoming mainstream as banks look for new ways to fight fraud.

As Fortune explained in a June feature about EyeVerify, the technology works by examining the blood vessels behind the whites of customers eyes’ and is reportedly as accurate as fingerprint sensors, which work 99.8% of the time. The banks deploy it by adding EyeVerify to their apps, allowing their clients to log in and do things like check balances and pay bills.

Now, being part of Ant Financial will give EyeVerify more access to the more than 450 million people, most of them in China, who use the online payments platform Alipay.

“Now, I have a much larger platform,” said EyeVerify CEO Toby Rush in a phone interview. “With Ant as a parent company, we can leverage their resources and stability to cast a vision that is 20 years long.”

Unlike in the U.S., where its primary business is consumer banking, EyeVerify’s role in China will be to authenticate payments on Alipay’s vast peer-to-peer network, which Rush likens to PayPal.

Rush added that the deal has already been approved by U.S banking regulators. While a Chinese company acquiring a key piece of U.S. banking technology may raise security concerns, Rush said EveVerify does not collect or store any biometric information. Instead the entire eye-authentication process takes place only on the customers’ device.

Missouri-based EyeVerify, meanwhile, will continue to pursue its course with the same team in place.

“The vision is we’re going to stay right here in Kansas City and double and triple the size of the company. All of the management will stay and the entire company will too.”

Prior to the acquisition, EyeVerify had raised around$10.4 million since it was founded in 2012.