Galway wearables player AmaTech begins €850k expansion

15 Feb 2016

A Spiddal company that pioneered contactless payments is ramping up to be a major player in smart jewellery

Spiddal-based AmaTech, a firm that has played a pioneering role in contactless payment technology, is embarking on an €850,000 expansion of its manufacturing facilities to seize opportunities in the smart jewellery space.

Through a tailored sale and leaseback agreement with Ulster Bank, AmaTech is pressing ahead with plans to expand its range in the smart jewellery space through its PayWear technology range.

The deal with Ulster Bank’s Lombard team has enabled the company to extract capital from existing assets.

Ulster Bank’s Lombard team came on board to value and later purchase the assets, in order to lease them back to AmaTech.

Founded in 2007, AmaTech claims to have invented the contactless card technology used in credit cards, passports and ID cards.

The company’s reactive coupling technology eliminates the physical connection between IC modules and in-card antennas and instead uses electromagnetic field induction to connect with the IC wirelessly.

It plans to use this technology to make payments possible through a broad range of smart jewellery.

“Innovation is a cornerstone of our company – we have developed technology that allows people to buy things with their bracelets and watches,” said AmaTech founder and CEO David Finn.

Wearables payment image via Shutterstock

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com