Blockchain Startup Raises $5M to Automate Airport Security Checks

Blockchain startup Zamna raised $5 million to automate airport security checks using blockchain and biometrics technology, tech news outlet Silicon Republic reports on Oct. 28.

The startup plans to use the funding to deploy its Advance Passenger Information platform.

According to company data website Crunchbase, the seed round was reportedly led by venture capital firms LocalGlobe and Oxford Capital partners alongside IAG, one of the world's largest airline groups.

Zamna, formerly known as Vchain Technology, aims to share passenger data between airports, governments and security firms via blockchain.

"The aspiration is that - as more passenger identities are verified digitally over time and shared securely between parties - the airport security process will become automated and passengers will be able to travel through the airport without needing any physical documentation or repeated ID checks."

The system reportedly allows for high privacy standards thanks to a proprietary algorithm capable of verifying biometric and biographic data without sharing it with third parties.

"The technology can be used by any of these parties to validate passengers biographic and biometric data, using cryptographically sound 'signals' to check you are who you say you are."

Zamna co-founder and CEO, Irra Ariella Khi, notes that airlines are currently unable to provide accurate data to governments in accordance with the regulations.

"In 2019, these decisions should be securely automated and informed by high integrity data - long before the journey even begins."

As Cointelegraph reported in March, a representative from the United States Customs and Border Protection previously said that using blockchain for biometric tracking would be the technology's killer app in the travel security sector.