Oloid AI launches from stealth with $5M funding to provide first COVID-19 era contactless biometrics platform for “Deskless Workers”

As part of the effort to safely get people back to work, workplaces need contactless and hygienic physical access solutions. Fingerprint readers and communal surfaces present the risk of spreading viruses. It’s time we equip our workplaces with simple, secure, and safe contactless biometric technology and get people”Back to Work.” Enter Oloid, a Silicon Valley-based AI tech startup on mission to provide secure and privacy-forward authentication across the entire day-of-the-life of deskless workers within essential industries.

Today, Oloid announced it has emerged from stealth with $5 million in seed funding to introduce the first COVID era contactless biometrics platform for “deskless workers.” The round was led by Emergent Ventures, and joined by Unusual Ventures and several marquee investors.

Originally founded in 2018 by Mohit Garg and Madhu Madhusudhanan, Oloid has developed the first COVID era contactless biometrics platform for “deskless workers” through a rigorous beta program with several Fortune 500 companies. Oloid is backed by Emergent Ventures, Unusual Ventures, West Wave Capital, StartX, Plug and Play Ventures, Seraph Ventures and other prominent angel investors and executives

“Protecting our essential workers has become one of our most important tasks as a society,” said Anupam Rastogi, general partner, Emergent Ventures. “The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need for identity and access management solutions that are contactless, privacy-forward, efficient, and accurate. Oloid’s technology will be increasingly relevant in a world where businesses face a new challenge of ensuring that people are back to work in a contagion-safe workplace.”

The Sunnyvale, California-based Oloid offers a highly accurate biometric authentication technology for frictionless and secure operation of time clocks, doors and turnstiles without the need of touching any communal surfaces. Workers access the app on standard tablets; it integrates with leading existing time and attendance systems, as well as most physical access control systems (PACS). Oloid’s FaceVaultTM facial authentication platform secures existing doors and turnstiles without the need for expensive hardware or rip and replacement of existing infrastructure. Oloid’s AI technology can detect the presence of PPE face masks and automatically prompt the user for voice recognition or QR code if the recognition confidence drops below an acceptable threshold due to the face mask.

To further strengthen safety at access-points and prevent the contagion, Oloid also offers temperature scanning of employees to detect elevated body temperature. Used together, facial biometrics and a thermal camera are a powerful way to identify potential risk before an employee is in proximity with other workers.

Since 2018, thousands of workers across factories and warehouses have been part of Oloid’s beta platform. Flex, one of the largest contract manufacturers in the U.S. is currently leveraging the company’s contactless biometrics technology across multiple sites.

Oloid offers a sophisticated privacy and security infrastructure to ensure the protection of end-user identity and personally identifiable information. Facial images are converted and stored as an encrypted numerical code and the source images are discarded, which eliminates the possibility of being used outside the workplace or the employer handing over the biometrics to external agencies. End-users can also manage consent and view logs of when and where their identity was used at the workplace, thereby providing full control and transparency.

“The COVID-19 crisis presents an unprecedented challenge for our times in keeping businesses operational while maintaining a contagion-safe workplace at the same time” said Mohit Garg, CEO of Oloid. “Many companies in essential industries are evaluating how to keep their workforce safe by leveraging the latest technologies, without compromising on privacy. It is our privilege to serve the deskless workforce of essential businesses by introducing our privacy-forward technology that can help them get back to work with one less thing to worry about.”