AWARE INC /MA/

Aware works in a narrow but important corner of tech. Biometrics. The company has operated for decades and is based near Boston in Burlington, Massachusetts.

Biometrics means proving who you are with your body. A fingerprint. A face. A voice. Aware builds the software that captures those traits and matches them reliably.

Its tools show up in places most people never think about. Governments use Aware software to enroll citizens and run large identity programs. Law enforcement agencies use it to match fingerprints. Banks use its Knomi platform to let customers unlock accounts with a face or voice scan on a phone.

Suppose a bank wants to stop account takeovers. It can ask a customer to glance at the camera during login. Aware checks that the face is live and real, not a photo held up to trick the system. That quick liveness check blocks a common fraud trick.

Aware is a small company. Revenue runs in the range of $15 million to $20 million a year, and results can swing with the timing of big government deals. The company has shifted toward recurring software licenses to smooth out those bumps. It is a pure play bet on a world that keeps replacing passwords with faces and fingerprints.