Following President Park to Iran Works Out for IRISYS

Han Seung-eun, CEO of IRISYS, said it was about the time when the smartphone was first introduced to the market and popularized that he anticipated the future market demand for technology incorporating iris recognition technology to protect personal privacy. To quote Han, “After witnessing the popularity of the smartphone, I could anticipate the pressing need for technologies to protect personal information for hand-held devices like smartphones.”

However, Han said he encountered challenges in proving the marketability and technological reliability of devices that can be directly mounted on smartphones. That is how Han came up with LOCKIT, a portable biometric security device. LOCKIT encrypts the personal biometric information generated through an iris recognition algorithm but rehashes such information for privacy.

According to Han, while Korean iris recognition and biometric technologies are world-class, Korea represents a relatively small market.This led IRISYS to put more emphasis on overseas market conditions and seek to meet requirements for market entry during the initial period of product development.As a result, IRISYS is currently exporting to Japan, the U.S., China and over a dozen other countries.

Asked about the recent trip to Iran, Han testifies that participating in the business delegation that accompanied President Park Geun-hye on her state visit to Iran proved fruitful. He said prior to the May trip, IRISYS struggled to hash out substantial conclusions from business talks with an Iranian partner (which started in October last year).

Han explained that as a small venture company, gaining trust from foreign partners has its limitations. Han said putting the company name on the list of the delegation itself helped IRISYS present itself as a trustworthy partner and local partners scrambled to arrange meetings with him. As a result, he could land US$35 million worth of contracts and also gain a foothold in the Iranian fintech market where IRISYS is expected to dominate approximately 30 percent of it.