In supermarkets, fast-food chains, or specialty stores, the checkout experience remains a source of friction — forgotten wallets, dead phone batteries, or unscanned loyalty apps complicate the process. Latvian startup Handwave offers a biometric solution that authenticates customers via their palm, enabling them to pay, identify themselves, or collect loyalty points with a single gesture.
The customer journey is designed to be instant. Users enroll by scanning their palm with their phone’s camera, link their payment cards, loyalty programs, or age-verification documents to an encrypted digital wallet, and can then pay or verify their identity by holding their hand above a compatible reader. No proprietary hardware is required on the merchant side, a strategic distinction from Amazon One, deployed in the U.S. over the past five years.
In Europe, only a few players are exploring similar applications. UK-based FinGo is piloting palm payments at live venues, while Belgium’s Palmki offers biometric access control using vein mapping.
Why rethink payment if contactless is already widespread?
While contactless payments via card or phone have become the norm, they come with inherent limitations: the need to carry a device, vulnerability to loss or theft, spending caps, and reliance on a charged, functioning phone. Handwave removes these obstacles with a truly hands-free, secure, and universal experience. No device, app, or PIN code is needed, presenting your palm is enough to complete a payment, collect loyalty points, or prove your age at checkout.
Unlike QR codes or fragmented mobile wallets, Handwave consolidates these functions into a single, seamless interaction, secured by advanced biometrics that are difficult to spoof. This reduces friction for users and simplifies integration for merchants, without requiring additional hardware. Palm-based recognition may soon redefine the benchmark for fast, secure in-store payments.
Founded in 2021 in Riga, Handwave’s proprietary technology captures both surface lines and the subdermal vein structure of the palm. Compared to fingerprints or facial recognition, this method is contactless, privacy-preserving, and highly secure — with no behavioral tracking possible.
The company has just raised €3.6 million in seed funding from Practica Capital, FirstPick, Outlast Fund, and Inovo.vc, bringing its total funding to €4.3 million. The capital will support real-world pilots, regulatory certifications, and payment network integration in Europe and the U.S.
