TECH5 to Develop New Payment Authentication System for Indian Market

TECH5 has bested the competition in the National Payments Corporation of India’s (NPCI) PayAuth Challenge. The Hackathon kicked off in February, and drew more than 100 entrants from all over the world.

Those teams were asked to come up with an innovative payment authentication solution that could be used to authorize transactions on the NPCI’s United Payments Interface (UPI) payment system, which is used to facilitate retail transactions in India. TECH5 submitted its T5-IDencode platform, which offers support for both face and fingerprint recognition.

As the winner, TECH5 will now have the opportunity to turn its pitch into a Proof of Concept that will be developed in collaboration with the NPCI. The T5-IDencode platform will allow users to link their UPI ID number to a decentralized biometric identifier that can be used as proof of identity during subsequent transactions. That identifier would presumably be verified with either a face or fingerprint recognition scan.

For its part, the NPCI is hoping that a biometric authentication system will improve the payment experience for Indian consumers, insofar as it will make UPI payments safer and more convenient. TECH5 was one of 19 teams that made it through the initial Hackathon screening, and one of eight that presented during the finale before being chosen as the winner in July.

“We are thrilled to explore alternative authorization solutions to facilitate a customer-friendly payment authentication mechanism for the ever-expanding UPI consumer base,” said NPCI COO Praveena Rai. “It is our sincere endeavour to back the UPI ecosystem and empower them with the right resources. The dynamic and evolving digital payments landscape in India has carved a niche for itself in the global arena and is only set to grow at an exponential rate.”

The UPI system already has more than a billion users, and has partnerships with over 1,200 banks. TECH5 has previously provided facial recognition technology for an Indian exam security specialist, and has partnered with ID R&D to create a mobile authentication app for those accessing government services in the country.

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September 7, 2021 – by Eric Weiss