Company History

Worldwide market leaders in voice biometrics for the government sector

AGNITIO S.L. headquartered in Madrid, Spain is a worldwide market leader in the government sector for forensic and intelligence voice biometrics solutions. ASIS is AGNITIO’s flagship government product. Today, AGNITIO has an extensive customer base with leading police organizations in over 22 countries for forensic applications.

Unique remote access authentication corporate product offering: KIVOX

AGNITIO is unique in how it has transitioned successfully from the toughest requirements for speaker identification in public security forensics, to verification systems used by banks and other commercial organizations. KIVOX is AGNITIO’s flagship product for the corporate sector that provides the most advanced voice biometric solutions for remote authentication.

Privately Funded

AGNITIO is a privately funded company backed by leading venture capitalists. In May 2006 the first round of VC funding was backed by Riva Y Garcia. In November 2007 the second round of funding was backed by Nauta Capital.

Solutions

AGNITIO S.L. was founded in 2004, initially as a spin-off from a leading University research group doing voice biometrics research since 1994. AGNITIO has worked very closely with key police organizations worldwide with the first technology renditions being co-developments with some of the world’s most reputable police forces. AGNITIO’s BATVOX was the first voice biometric tool for forensic applications implemented in real life police laboratories. Agnitio was the first company to deploy a 1-to-many identification system for police investigation. Agnitio’s proprietary technology and products are protected by a family of patents that grows every year.

Agnitio´s strong background in government forensics has paved the way for the company to launch KIVOX, voice biometrics technology targeted at the corporate sector. Financial services, telecoms, utilities and other sectors are implementing a new layer of security based on voice biometrics. KIVOX is ideally positioned in this market with inherited qualities developed in the most stringent of environments when it comes to voice-based identification and verification, namely Agnitio´s forensic identification capabilities. Find out more about our unique capabilities.

Management Team

Agnitio’s is formed by people from 8 different nationalities, with experts in Voice Biometric technologies, security IT products, and marketing and sales experienced executives. AGNITIO´s team collaborates with Universities, research institutes and business partners from all over the world.

Emilio Martinez - CEO
Emilio Martinez founded Agnitio in 2004 with four partners and is currently CEO and Chairman of the board. From 2000 to 2004, he held executive positions in several technology start-ups, such as Viaplus-Tech, a technology Web Portal, and AIA, a company offering unique security solutions based on proprietary Artificial Intelligence algorithms. From 1991 to 2000, Martinez worked in Lucent Technologies Microelectronics, leading engineering and research teams, such as the Interconnect Group in Bell Labs (Murray Hill, USA). Martinez holds a PhD in Physics from Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, where he was assistant professor (1978-1988).

Javier Castano – COO
Javier Castaño was one of the founding partners of Agnitio in 2004. He currently manages the Operations and R&D efforts in Agnitio as Chief Operating Officer. During 2002 and 2003 he was head of the engineer department at BP Solar plant in Tres Cantos, Madrid. From 1986 to 2001, Castaño worked in Lucent Technologies Microelectronics. He spent two years at Bell Labs R&D groups, both in the USA and Spain and ended managing the Test, Technology and Yield Improvement department in the Tres Cantos plant. Castaño holds a MS in Electrical Engineering (Ingeniero superior de Telecomunicación) from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Philippe Vinci - EVP marketing & Sales
Philippe brings over 20 years of invaluable experience in rapidly growing revenues of information technologies, innovations, software and services companies. He has successfully led and managed international teams in Europe, Africa, Middle East, North and South America and South East Asia. Previously, Philippe was the CEO of Welcome Real-time (EMEA and the Americas regions) and the Americas General Manager of Bull CP8 Inc. (now Gemalto).

Sapna Capoor – Director – Corporate Development & Strategy
Sapna Capoor is currently spearheading AGNITIO's voice biometrics corporate development and strategy program. She is a keen advocate for raising the profile of the Biometrics industry in the media and regularly presents at biometrics conferences. Capoor has been quoted in top global publications such as the Economist, Financial Times and Business Week. Previously, Capoor was the Global Programme Manager for Biometrics at Frost and Sullivan where she has authored numerous studies and white papers on different aspects of the biometrics industry. She has worked successfully with clients on biometrics based projects that range from product development strategies to entering new geographic markets. She has extensive experience in the development of business growth strategies. Ms Capoor graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Why AGNITIO?

AGNITIO’s feature-rich capabilities are transforming the way voice biometrics is being deployed in the government sphere and it is disrupting the established rules of the game in the corporate remote authentication market (e.g. Financial institutions, Call centres and Corporations), offering new enhanced security and flexibility options, predominantly for the high-end security tier.

• Text Independent: The technology does not depend on what the person is saying. In non collaborative applications this is a requirement since the person cannot be forced to read or repeat a fixed text. In collaborative environments it adds a critical level of security used as a live test.
• Language Independent: It is not dependent on the language spoken. A person’s voice can be captured using one language and later verified with the individual speaking in a different language. It also allows corporate applications to be deployed seamlessly in any language.
• Channel Independent: The technology is capable to work robustly against any communication channel mix. Cellular, land line phones, VoIP, video or TV audio streams can be used both for enrolment and verification.

Advisory Board

AGNITIO Technological Advisory Board was formed in 2005. This includes a range of international academics, key customers and global industry experts in the field of voice biometrics with members from the university, some of its key clients and experts in the world of voice biometrics. With the formation of this committee, AGNITIO aspires to assure that company consultants and strategy are always up to date in the latest in voice biometrics technologies.

The Advisory Board is includes Dr. Joaquin Gonzalez-Rodriguez, Professor of the EPS (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), Dr. Hermann J. Künzel, from the Philipps-Universität in Marburg (Germany), Mr. José Juan Lucena Chief of the Acoustic and Image Department of the Forensic Service of the Guardia Civil (Spain), Dr. Javier Ortega-Garcia, Professor of the EPS (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid), and Dr. Daniel Tapias, Telefónica de España.