Firm bets on biometric scanning on mobile phones for IPO windfall

Portland

HECTOR Hoyos founded his latest startup on the bet that biometric scanning on mobile phones will replace passwords on websites and ATMs. Now he's counting on investors to also back the idea.

A long-time biometric-security expert, Mr Hoyos has already started and sold 14 companies - most of them successes, and a few failures. His 15th, Hoyos Labs, lets you use a mobile phone to scan your face, iris or fingerprint to get cash from an ATM, eliminating the need to insert a card and type a PIN. The technology also allows you to log on to a website without submitting a password. The idea: It's tough to remember a dozen passwords and not always the most secure, but your face or eyeball are always on you and not easily faked.