CLEAR’s Uber Pact a Smart Chess Move With Major Growth Potential for Biometric ID

Removing anxiety from transactions is like reducing friction: Better outcomes happen faster. In a new pact sure to reduce stress, save time and create efficiencies, the CLEAR identity app is partnering with Uber for a better end-to-end, door-to-door ride-hailing experience.

On Tuesday (Dec. 14), a statement announced CLEAR’s new “Home to Gate” free in-app feature, integrating the Uber ride-hailing software within the CLEAR app and platform.

Per the statement, “With this partnership, CLEAR app users will be able to use the Home To Gate feature and its data-driven insights to find out exactly when to leave for their flight and reserve an Uber ride ahead of time, creating a more seamless, predictable travel experience.”

That moment of decision about when to summon an Uber for an airport run can be the trickiest choice in all of ride-hailing. Given CLEAR’s mission of making air travel faster by prequalifying travelers with biometrics instead of documents — skipping long TSA lines and wait times at airports — the Uber integration is a natural “last-mile” extension for CLEAR to add.

The integration also put the CLEAR brand in front of 93 million Uber users, a portion of which could represent immense growth for CLEAR, which has onboarded the data of 5.6 million users.

CLEAR is another technology accelerated by the pandemic, as its ability to upload and display images of COVID vaccination cards gives it considerable utility during a global pandemic.

See also: Clear, Uber Team on ‘Home to Gate’ App to Streamline Air Travel

In September, the company announced that “Resy, the hospitality technology platform owned by American Express, is partnering with CLEAR … to provide CLEAR’s Health Pass technology to all Resy restaurants free of charge through 2022.”

CLEAR’s biometric solution is benefiting from government COVID screening and verification in and out of airports. As travel ramps back up, demand for biometrics will likely rise in proportion.

Travel is one of several use cases for the CLEAR biometrics solution. At the time of its pre-IPO S-1 filing with the SEC in June, PYMNTS reported that CLEAR “has partnered with 26 sports and entertainment partners and 67 Health Pass-enabled partners. That reach helps give coverage to 110 locations, including offices, theaters and theme parks.”

Also see: CLEAR S-1 Shows Biometrics’ Pivot Beyond the Travel Industry

A CLEAR subscription is $179 a year and was popularized by frequent fliers after its 2010 debut.

According to PYMNTS’ December 2021 Digital Identity Tracker®, a Jumio collaboration, “the TSA is working to upgrade its credential authentication technology (CAT) machines with biometric, digital identity and self-service capabilities — the new machines are known as CAT-2 — to accept digital identity documents at its checkpoints.”

Get the Tracker: The Digital Identity Tracker®