The completion of Advent International and Bpifrance’s acquisition of Safran Identity & Security signals the latest watermark in what appears to be a rising trend of M&A activity in the identity industry.

It follows soon after Gemalto announced earlier this month that it had finalized its acquisition of 3M’s identity management business, 3M Cogent. And around the end of March, Mastercard had announced that it would acquire NuData Security, a pioneering behavioral biometrics specialist. The moves suggest that larger, global companies are starting to see enough value in firms with biometrics expertise to invest in bringing the technology in-house.

Meanwhile, biometrics specialists are looking to complement their expertise with acquisitions of their own. At the start of February, fingerprint sensor maker Fingerprint Cards announced that it would buy Delta ID, a company focused on iris biometrics. Just a couple of weeks later, FPC’s longtime software partner, Precise Biometrics, announced the finalization of its acquisition of NexID Biometrics, a firm specializing in liveness detection.

It all points to a recognition of the need for more sophisticated security technologies in digital identity, and a growing recognition of the value of biometrics in digital identity – and an increasing willingness to make big, bold investments in these areas, which in Advent and Bpifrance’s case has produced a new digital security juggernaut in OT-Morpho.

(Originally posted on FindBiometrics)