Merkatum Corporation, a leading provider of biometric technology software and services, announced that it will be relocating its North American corporate headquarters from Miami to Austin. Company officials say the move is intended to help them effectively service U.S. customers from a centrally located, well-established technology center.

“We chose to relocate in Austin due to the City’s superb infrastructure, human resources, geographic location, access to markets and capital, and overall broad support provided to technology companies. Austin is a well-established technology center with a unique personality and a strong entrepreneurial climate that offers a high quality of life at moderate costs” said José Luqué, President/CEO of Merkatum Corporation. “We are proud to be in Austin and confident that Merkatum will become an active and supportive member of the local community for many years to come.”

Merkatum Corporation provides software and services that help reduce identity fraud and security threats for government agencies, financial institutions and healthcare providers worldwide. Merkatum’s patent-pending emfiva® multi-biometric identity management system fuses fingerprint, facial and iris-matching technologies with a fully-integrated modular, open, scalable and multi-purpose application environment. The company will employ approximately 50 staff in the Austin office and plans to be fully operational by mid 2007.

The Austin Chamber of Commerce believes the Merkatum location decision highlights Austin’s attractiveness to international technology companies.

“Merkatum's decision to come to Austin reinforces Central Texas' integrated support to technology businesses of all sizes as well as the region's talented workforce,” said Joe Holt, Chair of Opportunity Austin, the Chamber's five year initiative to create 72,000 jobs, and Chairman of JPMorgan Chase-Austin. “Merkatum will certainly strengthen Austin's already strong workforce.”

Merkatum Corporation is currently part of TechBA-Austin, a technology business accelerator created by the Ministry of the Economy of Mexico and operated by the United States-Mexico Foundation for Science (FUMEC). Partnering with UT’s IC², TechBA is designed to support top-tier Mexican technology companies in bringing their innovative technology, products and services to the U.S. and global markets.