When students attending Wood County Schools in West Virginia, US, repeatedly forgot to bring their ID cards or simply could not remember their 9-digit PINs, which they used to pay for lunches at the school cafeterias, the school board turned to UPEK, Inc. The California-based biometric security solutions provider proposed its TouchChip® fingerprint readers, which did away with ID cards and PIN numbers, hence freeing teaching staff from resolving issues arising from lost cards and forgotten PINs.

Now the company has been recognised by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB) for its decision to establish its headquarters for international operations here. In December 2007, it received EDB's International Headquarters (IHQ) Award. To be conferred IHQ status, companies must commit to a substantial level of headquarters operations and investment in Singapore.

With this incentive, UPEK has committed to building a Center of Excellence in Singapore, which will focus on hardware R&D and IC design, manufacturing operations and worldwide sales and logistics. The company has also pledged to spend S$100 million (US$68.9 million) over the next 10 years to continue to build and strengthen its presence in Singapore.


Leading the biometric industry

UPEK was founded three years ago as a venture-backed spin-off from Swiss-based ST Microelectronics, and opened its Singapore office soon after. Currently, the company has about 30 employees in the Republic, which accounts for 25 per cent of UPEK's headcount. It expects to hire more staff as its operations here expand. UPEK manufactures fingerprint scanners for several companies including Lenovo, Dell, Sony, Gateway, Acer, Toshiba and NEC.

Although it also has offices in Prague, Taipei, Beijing and Tokyo, Singapore was selected over these other locations because of its quality of labour pool, its proximity to suppliers, business partners and customers, as well as its unique central location and world-class transport infrastructure.

"This decision marks an important milestone in our history," says Alan Kramer, President and CEO, UPEK, Inc. "When the company was founded, we had the vision to plan that UPEK would be international in scope and structure. Today realises our vision to create a truly global organisation, and also advances the vision of the Singapore government to embrace all multinational companies, including earlier-stage companies such as ourselves who want to maintain operations in this exciting and dynamic part of the world."

"Today realises our vision to create a truly global organisation, and also advances the vision of the Singapore government to embrace all multinational companies, including earlier-stage companies such as ourselves who want to maintain operations in this exciting and dynamic part of the world." - Alan Kramer, President and CEO, UPEK, Inc.

Tapping into Singapore's strengths

UPEK's IHQ in Singapore is a perfect fit with the Republic. Singapore's reputation as a trusted hub, with its strong intellectual property protection, world class IT infrastructure and transparent legal environment, makes it conducive for UPEK to use it as a base from which to develop and provide security solutions to its customers.

As a leading manufacturer of hard disk drives, Singapore's strengths in data storage and infocomms complement biometric security solutions.

Furthermore, UPEK can reap the benefits from the Republic's strong semiconductor industry. Over the past 30 years, Singapore has built up an integrated value chain of semiconductor activities with about 40 IC design centres, 14 operating silicon wafer fabs and about 20 assembly and test plants.

Manohar Khiatani, Assistant Managing Director, EDB, says, "We are pleased that UPEK has chosen Singapore as its International Headquarters with R&D activities and supply chain management. We are confident that Singapore's strong semiconductor capabilities, world class infrastructure and business-friendly environment will add value to UPEK's operations."

It looks like the biometrics industry just got a boost.