Simprints

Simprints is a nonprofit technology company originating at the University of Cambridge. The company builds biometric identification tools and contactless face scanning solutions to be used by governments, NGOs, and nonprofit organisations serving people in low- and middle-income countries who lack proof of legal identity. The company promotes a portable fingerprint and face biometric system designed for front-line workers delivering at the last mile. The technology uses Bluetooth to connect to an Android mobile device that is interoperable with existing mHealth systems such as CommCare, ODK, or DHIS2.

History
Simprints emerged in May 2012 out of a hackathon organised by the Centre for Global Equality and sponsored by technology company Arm. The founders of Simprints include Gates-Cambridge scholars Alexandra Grigore, Toby Norman, and Daniel Storisteanu as well as Royal Holloway-University of London student Tristram Norman.

In 2014, the firm received a Round 4 Saving Lives at Birth Seed Grant, part of a Grand Challenges competition supported by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Government of Norway, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada (funded by the Government of Canada), and the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). This funding was partially matched by Arm ltd, a Cambridge based semiconductor and software company. This provided for a pilot study in partnership with BRAC and the Johns Hopkins Global mHealth Initiative to test the system with health workers in Gaibandha, Bangladesh.

In 2015, Simprints received another grant from Innovate UK (formerly the Technology Strategy Board) to move prototypes to the pre-production phase and develop and verify all software. This enabled the firm to launch a pilot project with BRAC which later manifested in a formal partnership.

In 2016, Simprints developed their first production-ready biometric scanner known as Vero. It is IP65 rated and CE/FCC certified.

In 2016, Simprints won a $200,000 grant from the Global Innovation Fund.

In 2017, the firm won a Round 7 Saving Lives at Birth Transition to Scale grant for $2 million to scale up Simprints partnership with BRAC’s maternal health program to reach 2 million expectant mothers and children in Bangladesh.

In 2019, Simprints announced that 3000 units of the Vero 2.0 would be shipped in early 2020

At the end of 2023, Simprints made its Android application available on GitHub, making it one of the world’s first fully open-source biometric ID solutions for last-mile delivery with advanced privacy engineering.

Published Literature
In October 2023, Simprints was featured in a Harvard Business School Case Study entitled ‘Toby Norman: Is passion enough for Simprints to thrive?’. The case, written by Professor Jon Jachimowicz, is an in-depth look at the Simprints story and has become part of the core curriculum for all first-year Business students in the LEAD programme at Harvard.

In May 2023, Simprints launched the ‘Responsible Biometric Deployment Handbook’, funded by IBM. The project was supported with a grant from the Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab, the applied arm of the Notre Dame Technology Ethics Center. The guide provides tools to explore the ethical and secure adoption of biometric technology in frontline humanitarian and development settings.

Affiliations
As of January 2023, Simprints' partners and financial supporters include:

• Arm

• Autodesk

• Balsamiq

• Basecamp

• Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

• BRAC

• Brown University

• Children's Investment Fund Foundation

• Cisco

• COHESU

• CommCare

• D-Tree

• Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation

• Duke University

• Elevate Foundation

• Foundation Botnar

• Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance

• Gerson Lehrman Group

• Ghana Health Service

• GitHub

• GIZ

• Global Innovation Fund

• Google

• Innovations in Healthcare

• Impact Network

• Innovate UK

• International Committee of the Red Cross

• JetBrains

• John Snow, Inc

• Kemp Little

• Khushi Baby

• London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

• Microsoft

• Ministry of Health of Ethiopia

• Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

• MIT Solve

• MobiKlinic

• Notre Dame-IBM Technology Ethics Lab

• ODK

• Orbis International

• Pfizer Foundation

• Salesforce

• Slack

• Smart Design

• Terra Firma

• Steele Foundation for Hope

• Trinity College, Cambridge

• UK aid

• United States Agency for International Development

• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• University of Sydney

• World Bank

• World Food Program

Non-current partners and supporters include the Electric Power Research Institute, Grand Challenges Canada and Impact Network.