GCC tech startups cautiously optimistic about post-pandemic future

GCC tech startups cautiously optimistic about post-pandemic future

DUBAI: Across the GCC bloc, fingerprint and facial recognition regulate entry into factories, ensure employee attendance, and even offer access to telephone records. But with the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic making people recoil at the thought of touching public surfaces, biometric identification providers have had to rethink their business. Zain Moosa and Syed Abrar Ahmed launched Liber Health around the time the first COVID-19 cases were surfacing, so had to go back to the drawing board. "We saw the inability to use traditional fingerprint identification due to the risk of contagion from physical contact. Similarly, facial recognition also became useless because everyone was wearing masks," says Moosa, a Pakistani national whose company is incorporated with the UAE's in5 Tech platform. Liber Health's patent-pending technology uses optical iris scans in combination with blockchain systems for identity control, privacy, health data transfers and coronavirus health checks. The company now wants to expand into Saudi Arabia, the US and Central Asia. New ventures appear to be surging globally as entrepreneurs in major economies react to new market demands, and laid-off employees put their experience to work for themselves. In the US, startup applications in the third quarter of 2020 were 82 percent higher