Start - Up UniverseAI, which develops artificial intelligence (AI) biometric recognition technology, plans to enter the India market in earnest next year.
Chu Ui-min, head of UniverseAI, said on the 26th at Korea Fintech Week 2025 at the aT Center in Yangjae, Seoul, that the company "recently signed a contract with a local bank in India and a local payment system company to provide remote facial recognition payment technology." The contract is worth about 20 billion won.
Chu said, "As early as the end of this year, we plan to provide services in India along with terminals," and "India, with a very large population, has 400 million to 600 million users signed up with a single bank, so we see significant growth potential."
UniverseAI has already formed a partnership with the Fintech finance app "Toss."
The differentiated technology UniverseAI touts is "one-to-many matching." It can accurately identify a specific person in a large crowd, and it is rated highly for accuracy. UniverseAI said its in-house liveness technology (face identification) recently recorded a 99.85% recognition rate in a performance evaluation by the Korea Internet & Security Agency (KISA).
The company said that using this technology can overcome the limitations of existing facial recognition technology (one-to-one matching), which was limited to simply confirming whether the person is the same.
Chu said, "Based on this technology, users can pay immediately with just their face, without a wallet, card, or smartphone," adding, "If you skip turning on the smartphone to press a fingerprint or turning on the camera to scan a payment QR, payment speed is much faster."
AI facial recognition technology is not limited to payment systems. The company provides solutions to public institutions and companies that require security, such as video content analysis (VCA) and know your customer (KYC). UniverseAI said it is providing VCA technology that integrates AI with CCTV to the Korean National Police Agency's forensic science division and prisons to help identify deceased persons and track criminals.
At this event, UniverseAI showcased UNIVS PAY, a remote payment system, as a core technology. The contactless service is based on facial recognition and applies liveness technology to verify that a real person is present and anti-spoofing technology to block spoofing attacks, preventing forgery, falsification, and theft.
UniverseAI is also aiming to enter the payment service provider business. Chu said, "We are currently preparing business-to-business (B2B) contracts in Vietnam, Japan, and Dubai," adding, "We are developing a service that allows overseas users visiting Korea to pay with Zero Pay and Seoul Pay."
UniverseAI, which turned a profit in the first half of this year, is targeting more than 20 billion won in revenue next year through its India business. UniverseAI's revenue last year was about 700 million won.