![]() | |
Company type | Nonprofit |
---|---|
Industry | Technology |
Founder | Alexandra Grigore Toby Norman Daniel Storisteanu Tristram Norman |
Headquarters | University of Cambridge |
Products | Biometric identification tools |
Website | www![]() |
Simprints is a nonprofit technology company originating at the University of Cambridge. [1] 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. [2] [3] The company promotes a portable fingerprint and face biometric system designed for front-line workers delivering at the last mile. [4] [5] The technology uses Bluetooth to connect to an Android mobile device that is interoperable with existing mHealth systems such as CommCare, ODK, or DHIS2. [6]
Simprints emerged in May 2012 out of a hackathon organised by the Centre for Global Equality and sponsored by technology company Arm. [7] [8] The founders of Simprints include Gates-Cambridge scholars Alexandra Grigore, [9] Toby Norman, and Daniel Storisteanu [10] as well as Royal Holloway-University of London student Tristram Norman. [11]
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). [12] [13] [14] This funding was partially matched by Arm ltd, a Cambridge based semiconductor and software company. [15] 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. [6] [7] [14] [16] [17] [18] [19]
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. [20]
In 2016, Simprints developed their first production-ready biometric scanner known as Vero. It is IP65 rated and CE/FCC certified. [21]
In 2016, Simprints won a $200,000 grant from the Global Innovation Fund. [22]
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. [23] [24] [4]
In 2019, Simprints announced that 3000 units of the Vero 2.0 would be shipped in early 2020 [11]
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. [25]
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. [26]
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. [27]
Year | Award | Subject | Outcome | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
2014 | Saving Lives at Birth Grand Challenge | Simprints | Won | [28] |
2015 | UNICEF + TechCrunch Award for ‘Best Tech: Changing Children’s Lives for Good’ | Won | [29] | |
Business Weekly Awards Startup Company of the Year | Won | [30] | ||
2016 | Forbes 30 Under 30 Entrepreneur List | Toby Norman (CEO) | Won | [31] |
Tristram Norman | Won | [32] | ||
Dan Storisteanu | Won | |||
$200,000 grant from the Global Innovation Fund | Simprints | Won | [33] | |
2017 | Core77 Design for Social Impact Award | Simprints and Smart Design | Won | [34] |
Schwab Social Entrepreneur of the Year | Toby Norman (CEO) | Won | [35] | |
Round 7 Saving Lives at Birth Transition to Scale Grant | Simprints | Won | [36] | |
2018 | GLG Social Entrepreneur Fellowship | Toby Norman (CEO) | Won | [37] |
2019 | The World Bank’s Mission Billion Challenge - Top Prize | Simprints | Won | [38] |
2020 | Elevate Prize Foundation Award | Alexandra Grigore (CPO) | Won | [39] |
MIT Solve 'Health Security and Pandemics' Challenge for 'Biometrics for Vaccine Delivery' | Simprints | Won | [40] | |
FT/IFC Transformational Business Award: ‘Transformational Solutions in Health, Wellness and Disease Prevention’ | Won | [41] | ||
COVIDaction Data Challenge Award | Won | [42] | ||
10 Best Workplaces in Tech (Small) | Won | [43] | ||
24 Best Workplaces (Small) | Won | [44] | ||
2021 | Innovations in Healthcare ‘Innovator Network’ | Won | [45] | |
Great Place to Work 2021 | Won | [46] | ||
2022 | World Food Programme Digital Health Innovation Accelerator | Won | [47] | |
2023 | Great Place to Work Certified Company | Won | [48] | |
2024 | Flexa Certified Flexible Company | Won | [49] | |
2024 Responsible Tech Organisations List | Won | [50] |
As of January 2023, Simprints' partners and financial supporters include: [51]
Non-current partners and supporters include the Electric Power Research Institute, [58] Grand Challenges Canada [23] and Impact Network. [59]
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) is an American private foundation founded by Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates. Based in Seattle, Washington, it was launched in 2000 and is reported to be the second largest charitable foundation in the world, holding $69 billion in assets as of 2020. The primary stated goals of the foundation are to enhance healthcare and reduce extreme poverty across the world, and to expand educational opportunities and access to information technology in the U.S. Key individuals of the foundation include Warren Buffett, chief executive officer Mark Suzman, and Michael Larson.
The Department of Computer Science and Technology, formerly the Computer Laboratory, is the computer science department of the University of Cambridge. As of 2023 it employed 56 faculty members, 45 support staff, 105 research staff, and about 205 research students. The current Head of Department is Professor Alastair Beresford.
BRAC is an international development organisation based in Bangladesh. In order to receive foreign donations, BRAC was subsequently registered under the NGO Affairs Bureau of the Government of Bangladesh. BRAC is the largest non-governmental development Organisation in the world, in terms of the number of employees as of September 2016. Established by Sir Fazle Hasan Abed in 1972 after the independence of Bangladesh, BRAC is present in all 64 districts of Bangladesh as well as 16 other countries in Asia, Africa, and the Americas.
Imperial College Business School, a division of Imperial College London in London, England, was opened by Queen Elizabeth II. The school's courses cultivate innovative thinking and responsible leadership, preparing its students to drive global impact.
Social innovations are new social practices that aim to meet social needs in a better way than the existing solutions, resulting from - for example - working conditions, education, community development or health. These ideas are created with the goal of extending and strengthening civil society. Social innovation includes the social processes of innovation, such as open source methods and techniques and also the innovations which have a social purpose—like activism, crowdfunding, time-based currency, telehealth, cohousing, virtual volunteering, microcredit, or distance learning. There are many definitions of social innovation, however, they usually include the broad criteria about social objectives, social interaction between actors or actor diversity, social outputs, and innovativeness. Different definitions include different combinations and different number of these criteria. Transformative social innovation not only introduces new approaches to seemingly intractable problems, but is successful in changing the social institutions that created the problem in the first place.
Acumen is a nonprofit impact investment fund based in the U.S. that focuses on investing in social enterprises that serve low-income individuals. Acumen was founded in April 2001 by Jacqueline Novogratz. It aims to demonstrate that small amounts of philanthropic capital, combined with business acumen, can result in thriving enterprises that serve vast numbers of the poor. Over the years, Acumen has invested $154.4 million in 167 companies and has had a successful track record in sourcing and executing investment opportunities in the clean energy, education, financial inclusion, health care and agriculture sectors.
Mubadala Investment Company PJSC, or simply Mubadala, is a state-owned global investment management holding company that acts as one of the sovereign wealth funds of the government of Abu Dhabi. The company was established in 2017 when then-named Mubadala Development Company and the International Petroleum Investment Company (IPIC) merged. Headquartered in Abu Dhabi, Mubadala also has offices in London, Rio de Janeiro, New York, San Francisco and Beijing.
The Children's Investment Fund Foundation (UK) (CIFF) is an independent philanthropic organisation with offices in Addis Ababa, Beijing, London, Nairobi and New Delhi. It is a registered charity in England and Wales and in 2021 disbursed $468 million and committed $772 million in charitable investments. With assets of GBP £5.2 billion (USD $6.6 billion), it is the 5th largest global development philanthropy in the world based on annual disbursements. According to OECD published data, it is the world's second largest private funder of reproductive health and environmental protection globally and the largest philanthropy that focuses specifically on improving children's lives. In 2021, CIFF pledged $500 million towards gender equality over five years as part of the generation equality forum.
Omni-ID is a vendor of passive UHF Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags. Founded in 2007 as Omni-ID, Ltd., its products are a range of RFID tags designed to operate in all environments, including on metal and liquids.
VillageReach is a registered 501(c)(3) that works with governments to solve health care delivery challenges in low-resource communities. Its headquarters are in Seattle, Washington with international offices in Mozambique, Malawi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Africa. The VillageReach approach includes developing, testing, implementing and scaling new systems, technologies and programs that improve health outcomes. This is achieved by extending the reach and enhancing the quality of health care. The benefits are manifested through supply chain and logistics improvements, information and communication technology, human resources for health, private sector engagement and advocacy.
Biometrics refers to the automated recognition of individuals based on their biological and behavioral characteristics, not to be confused with statistical biometrics; which is used to analyse data in the biological sciences. Biometrics for the purposes of identification may involve DNA matching, facial recognition, fingerprints, retina and iris scanning, voice analysis, handwriting, gait, and even body odor.
Jane Marie Chen is the co-founder of Embrace, a social enterprise that invented and distributes a low-cost infant warmer, that gives premature and low-birth-weight infants a better chance at survival. The Embrace infant warmers / incubators have now helped to save over 700,000 babies in 25 countries. Jane served as the first CEO of Embrace, the non-profit arm of the organization, before stepping into the chief executive officer (CEO) role of Embrace Innovations, the for-profit social enterprise that was spun off in 2012..
TDX Group is a data and technology company that provides creditors platforms, tools and services to maximise returns from debt portfolios. TDX Group was founded in 2004 by Mark Onyett. TDX Group was acquired by Equifax in 2014.
Charles R. Conn is a Canadian and American CEO, conservationist and author. In 2021 he co-founded and is partner of Monograph, a life sciences venture firm. In 2019 he was the CEO of Oxford Sciences Innovation. Previously, he was the warden and global CEO of Rhodes House and the Rhodes Trust, the organization responsible for administering the Rhodes Scholarship from 2013 to 2018.
Maura O'Neill served as the First Chief of Innovation and was a Senior Counselor to the Administrator in January 2009 at the United States Agency for International Development. She is currently a Distinguished Teaching Fellow in the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
Revolut is a global neobank and financial technology company based in London, England. It offers banking services for retail customers and businesses. It was founded in 2015 by Nikolay Storonsky and Vlad Yatsenko. It offers products including banking services, currency exchange, debit and credit cards, virtual cards, Apple Pay, interest-bearing "vaults", personal loans and BNPL, stock trading, crypto, commodities, human resources and other services.
Grand Challenges Canada (GCC) is a Canadian nonprofit organization that employs a Grand Challenges model to fund solutions and efforts for health and economic problems in the low- and middle-income countries and Canada.
Onfido is a technology company that helps businesses verify people's identities using a photo-based identity document, a selfie and artificial intelligence algorithms.
CMR Surgical is a British medical device company based in Cambridge. It produces a robot-assisted surgery system called Versius. The company achieved Unicorn status in 2019, while in 2021 it received a valuation of $3 billion.
Undo is a software debugging company based in Cambridge, UK. The company was founded in 2005 by Greg Law and Julian Smith. Undo’s technology is used by software engineering teams to debug software programs.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)