We are impact partners

Harnessing technology to improve the lives of the world’s poorest

How we work

Our approach

How and why we do what we do. These principles are built into the architecture of every project, partnership, and product we deploy.

People and privacy first

We put our beneficiaries first. Privacy, transparency, and human-centred design are the foundation of our approach.

Impact calls for collaboration

We are collaborators and co-creators. We are with you every step of the way to ensure a successful project.

Technology for challenging contexts

Technology doesn’t exist in a vacuum. Our biometric solution is optimised for the challenges of low-resource settings.

Simprints In the field

Sectors overview

Identification is a cross-cutting challenge. Our solution has been proven to work across multiple sectors.

Cash and Aid Distribution

Ensuring coverage in cash transfer programmes and aid distribution remains a key industry challenge. Ineligible recipients, ‘double dippers’, ‘ghosts’, and impersonators can prevent intended beneficiaries from receiving their payment or aid disbursement. Simprints has worked on CVA in both Nigeria, with Mercy Corps, and in Somalia, with the Cash Consortium  and Concern Worldwide. Participants using Simprints have reported that they felt biometrics was safer and easier than remembering a PIN or carrying a card. In aid distribution, Cohesu, a Kenyan NGO, are using Simprints to ensure that each pair of shoes they distribute reaches the correct recipient.


Immunisations

An overwhelming body of evidence shows that immunisations are one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions ever known. Yet 1.5 million children die of vaccine preventable diseases every year, accounting for 17% of deaths in children under 5 years old. Simprints is partnering with Gavi to disrupt the inaccurate way we currently track and deliver vaccines, and instead build a world where every infant and child is reached in the fight against vaccine-preventable disease.

Infectious Diseases

Infectious diseases are among the top 10 global health threats. In a single year, Tuberculosis (TB) killed 1.5M (2018), Malaria killed 405,000 (2018), and HIV/AIDs killed >690,000 and newly infected 1.7M (2019). Treatments are becoming increasingly available, but challenges in reaching patients remain. In one health study, 35% of patient records were found to be “unsatisfactory and inaccurate” (Mahmoud & Ayub, 2010), and stigmatisation plays a powerful deterrent against treatment course completion, leading to higher rates of disease exacerbation, co-morbidity, and mortality. Simprints is working with various partners, such as the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), to ensure patients receive full, timely treatment, while also respecting their privacy and anonymity.

Maternal health

99% of maternal deaths occur in developing countries, the vast majority of which are preventable. The World Health Organisation recommends a minimum of eight check-ups before birth, however only 40% of all mothers are receiving these visits due to challenges in identification and accountability. Biometrics provide a powerful tool to identify patients, instantly finding the right record with the tap of a finger. Simprints is working with BRAC in the slums of Dhaka to ensure every mother and child has access to care.

Neglected Tropical Diseases

According to the World Health Organisation, NTDs affect over 1 billion people, primarily rural populations living in low-income countries. These diseases are often considered “neglected” because the people affected have a low socioeconomic status in public health priorities. However, with accurate data and access to simple and cost-effective interventions, NTDs can be prevented and even eradicated if efforts to reach the most vulnerable are sustained. By providing more reliable and accurate treatment verification through biometric identification, Simprints is supporting Ethiopia’s Public Health Institute to break the transmission of two NTDs, schistosomiasis (bilharziasis) and soil-transmitted helminthiases (intestinal worms), across the Wolayita zone.

Case Studies

Every use case is unique

We have partnered with nonprofits, NGOs, and government ministries to deliver services to thousands of the most vulnerable people around the world.

Digitally-enabling a primary health system to save lives

Leveraging Simprints biometrics, diagnosis and decision support, referral coordination, and user performance dashboards, Apotheker Consultancy and D-Tree International have created an integrated digital health system to support health workers assess danger signs in vulnerable populations and access services in both the public and private sectors in Kibaha district. CHWs, health facility staff, and private drug shop dispensers are utilising the system to manage patient care, including confirming referral linkages and communication throughout the primary health system.
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Scaling up to save lives at birth

Using the Simprints biometric system, Shasthya Kormis track the number of antenatal and postnatal care visits a mother receives with unprecedented accuracy and efficiency to help decrease infant and maternal mortality.
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Improving HIV outcomes in youth

Research assistants at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine are using Simprints to protect the privacy of 30,000 study participants, who might otherwise hesitate to be openly associated with seeking sexual and reproductive health care and/or HIV/AIDS support services. Biometrics enables the intervention to be ‘youth-friendly’ and limit the amount of identifying information (date of birth, sex, initials) that needs to be collected when these vulnerable individuals are seeking supportive services. 
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Tackling neglected diseases

Simprints helps Cohesu, a local grassroots NGO in Kenya, track and treat neglected diseases such as tunga (infection caused by sandfleas), malaria, and diarrhea in schoolchildren and their families. Through accurate identification, Cohesu follows up with each patient to ensure complete eradication of the diseases.
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Breaking transmission of neglected tropical diseases

The Ethiopia Federal Ministry of Health and its partners aim to demonstrate a sustainable and scalable model for breaking transmission of parasitic worms in rural Ethiopia. In partnership with the Ethiopian Public Health Institute, London Centre for Neglected Tropical Disease Research at Imperial College London, World Vision Ethiopia, and the Children's Investment Fund Foundation, Simprints is helping to ensure high coverage of deworming treatment across five districts in Wolayita.
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Eliminating tuberculosis at the last mile

Using Simprints to enrol and identify participants, research assistants at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) tested a new regimen to diagnose and treat tuberculosis (TB) in patients attending a local Blantyre clinic.
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Monitoring engagement in HIV care for women

Researchers from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, evaluated how a biometrically-enhanced monitoring system compares to the current HIV monitoring system in recording HIV visits, identifying transfers between clinics, and identifying women who are lost to follow-up.
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We look forward to working with you

Together we can use technology to make every person count