Handwave: the future of wallet-free, phone-free, PIN-free payments

In Riga, Latvia, a new generation of biometric payments is taking shape. Handwave, the fintech founded by Jānis Stirna and Sandis Osmanis-Usmanis, aims to make the in-store shopping experience as seamless as possible: paying, verifying age, and activating loyalty programs with a single hand gesture.

In-store checkout has barely evolved in decades, yet consumers are ready for something faster, simpler, and more secure. From this need, Handwave was born, redefining the checkout process through palm-based biometrics: a single scan that activates benefits, confirms age, and completes payment in seconds.

With €4.75 million in seed funding, strategic partnerships with Visa, and a rapidly growing team, Handwave is positioning itself as one of Latvia’s most promising startups in the European payments and digital identity ecosystem.

In this interview, Oskars Lakšēvics, Handwave’s Chief Revenue Officer, explains how the combination of palm geometry and vein recognition promises to reduce checkout lines, eliminate friction, and usher in a new era of device-free payments. The company’s ambitious goal: make “no wallet, no phone, no card — just a Handwave” the standard of the future.

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1-Tell us a bit about yourself, and how you got the idea for your company.

The spark was simple: checkout in stores is still a hassle for both: consumers and merchant’s employees. We asked, “What if the whole checkout experience – juggling loyalty cards and apps, verifying your age for age-restricted items, choosing the payment method – could feel instant, done in one move?” That insight became our mission – make in-store checkout experience as simple as a handwave. No wallets, no phones, no cards, no PINs. Just handwave.

Our founders, Jānis Stirna and Sandis Osmanis-Usmanis, came from the payments industry –  former colleagues at Worldline. Music is their shared hobby: before the pandemic they dreamed up a festival and thought, “Instead of tickets or wristbands that get lost, why not scan your palm?” Then COVID hit. In hindsight, it was the push to go bigger. From a local festival idea, Handwave is now positioned to become the largest Latvian-born fintech for in-store payments and verified identity.

2- What problem/opportunity do you address, and for which customers?

We’re built for retailers and shoppers. Retail has an old, expensive bottleneck: checkout speed. Today, if a customer wants to (1) activate loyalty, (2) prove age for restricted items, and (3) pay, the full flow at the till often takes 60+ seconds. At peak hours, that creates long queues and lost sales.

Handwave turns that minute into a moment. Loyalty activation, age verification, and payment all happen with one contactless palm scan – the entire process in about 4 seconds.

Why it matters:

• Shorter lines, higher conversion. Faster lanes mean more throughput and fewer walk-aways.
• No missed loyalty. Rewards and discounts apply automatically – nothing to fumble or forget.
• No awkward ID checks. Age verification is instant and private.

Integration is straightforward:

• Large and mid-size retailers connect via simple cloud APIs, so no heavy capex or long development projects.
• The palm scanners connect to existing POS terminals or ECR.
• For smaller merchants, a plug-and-play setup works anywhere there’s power and internet.

Accessibly priced hardware:

• Scanners are available to buy or rent for a few euros per month, typically below the cost of standard POS devices.

3- What is your solution/USP, and who do you compete with?

There are two companies that are deploying palm-based payments. But I’d frame Amazon One and Tencent more as enablers than competitors.

Amazon One brought palm scanning to Whole Foods, but it’s a closed system for their own ecosystem. Tencent offers palm payments in China, yet Chinese payment models will likely struggle to enter European or North American markets.

Importantly, they help shift consumer behavior toward pure biometric payments – just like the early days of contactless. Adoption takes time, and every deployment moves habits our way.

Our USP & value proposition.

• One gesture, three outcomes: loyalty + age/ID verification + payment with a single contactless palm scan.
• Low-effort integrations: simple cloud APIs for large retailers; plug-and-play for small merchants.
• Lower hardware cost: palm scanners developed by Handwave, available at accessible pricing.
• Higher security.
• Simplicity by design.

Including user journey (kept radically simple).
Download the Handwave app, register, scan your palm with your phone camera, and link your payment and loyalty cards. If you want, scan both palms and link different cards to each (e.g., debit on one, credit on the other). Then just shop where Handwave palm scanners are installed.

Security by design.
Our device combines two cameras: one reads lines/contours, the other reads vein structure – creating a unique biometric signature for each person. We add liveness detection (blood-flow check), so it won’t work with a prosthetic, silicone replica, or a spoofed image. Practically, it’s safer than tap-and-go cards and helps reduce card-fraud –  a key reason the financial industry values what we’re building.

4- What are the industry trends or market shifts, and any research?

Biometric payments are moving from pilot to mainstream, with three reinforcing shifts:

• Palm & in-store biometrics are proven in the wild. Amazon One has expanded palm payments to all U.S. Whole Foods stores, noting million uses. Tencent’s WeChat/Weixin Pay launched palm-scan payments across hundreds of stores, including + 7-Eleven – a signal that palm is crossing from novelty to utility; clear product-market fit signals.
• Mobile wallets dominate growth at the POS – and they’re biometric-first. Worldpay’s Global Payments Report shows digital wallets already account for ~30% of global POS spend (2023), with strong growth ahead; independent trackers put 2024 POS share at ~32%. Wallets are typically authenticated by device biometrics (face/fingerprint), accelerating consumer comfort with biometric payments.
• Biometric transaction volumes are set to surge. Juniper forecasts 46 billion biometric-enabled in-store transactions by 2028 and more than $3 trillion in payments authenticated by biometrics by 2025.

Bottom line: Payments are already biometric by habit (via phones and watches); palm brings those same benefits without devices – making checkout even faster and simpler for both shoppers and retailers.

5- What is your company’s current stage and traction?

We’re a well-funded seed-stage company building for scale:

• Funding: total raised ~€4.75M.
• Partner: Visa – on tokenization and scheme connectivity; enabling 8+ billion cards globally (both Visa, Mastecard)
• Team: from 7 (2024) to 40+ (2025) across product, hardware, and go-to-market.
• Product: end-to-end biometric payment + loyalty + age/ID platform. Technical solution ready; production-ready in Q2 2026. Pilots with retailers planned, focusing on mid-2026.

6- Plans for the next 6–18 months — and how can our network help?

6-18 months: certifications, sign partners, finalize pilots, and expand merchant integrations while deepening scheme/tokenization work. Scale pilots, move to production rollouts with anchor retailers, and expand across European markets plus selected US partners.

How you can help:

• Investor intros: warm introductions to Series A investors (fintech, payments infrastructure, retail tech)
• Retail access: connections to Tier-1 grocers, convenience chains for pilots and rollouts.

7- What’s on your bookshelf or podcast app? Favourite place for a coffee or a drink?

• Reads/Pods: I binge economic news, podcasts, and vodcasts from Europe and the U.S. –  anything that helps me track market moves, consumer trends, and overall economic health.
• Coffee: I’m a coffee maniac – happy to try it anywhere, any time, with one rule: only until 15:00.

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Handwave is more than a fintech startup—it’s a glimpse into the future of everyday transactions. By turning a simple hand gesture into a secure, instant payment, it challenges the way we think about money, identity, and convenience. As the company expands its pilots across Europe and the U.S., one thing is clear: the era of wallets, phones, and PINs may soon be a thing of the past. For shoppers, all it might take is a wave.