San Francisco — June 18, 2025 — Paravision, a leader in trusted Identity AI, today announced it has retained Fortinus Global, and its Managing Director, Tony Smith CBE – former Director General of the UK Border Force and one of the world’s foremost experts in border management and security – as a strategic advisor on expanding the company’s role in border security programs.

This new relationship reflects Paravision’s growing engagement with the international border technology ecosystem. Fortinus and Mr. Smith will support Paravision’s efforts across global border programs, offering guidance on strategic alignment, technical readiness, and operational fit.

Paravision’s technology is of a very high standard. Having assessed its performance, applicability, and integrity, we believe it is exceptionally well-positioned for the border market. It’s rare to see this combination of technical excellence, ethical grounding, and business flexibility in the identity space.
Tony Smith, Managing Director of Fortinus Global

Before entering into this advisory engagement, Fortinus conducted an extensive, independent evaluation of Paravision’s face recognition and identity AI capabilities, focusing on border management and immigration use cases. Their findings concluded that Paravision significantly exceeds current trends in border technology and offers a product well-suited to government applications globally.

Paravision is a well-financed, ambitious, and intelligent organisation with products that are independently reviewed as high performing. Face Matching is becoming the modality of choice for general, public-involving identity systems, since face is the simplest and easiest biometric to capture and can be performed on a variety of devices, which may lack fingerprint or special infra-red-light facilities. This is a ‘right place, right time’ opportunity for Paravision.
Tony Smith, Managing Director of Fortinus Global

A Proven Voice in Border Security

Tony Smith brings over four decades of government service to this partnership. Having led national border operations in both the United Kingdom and Canada, he has overseen some of the most complex migration and security challenges of the modern era, including the operational responses of the Canadian Border Services Agency to 9/11 and UK Border Force to the London 7/7 attacks. He was awarded the Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for his leadership in securing the London 2012 Olympics.

Now Managing Director of Fortinus Global and Chairman of the International Border Management and Technologies Association (IBMATA), Smith is a regular commentator on and a globally recognized leader in modernizing border strategies. Fortinus serves as the private consultancy arm of IBMATA, delivering high-level guidance to both governments and leading technology vendors.

Working with Tony and Fortinus is about more than market insight—it’s a signal of our readiness to support national-scale identity programs. Their evaluation validates not only the performance and integrity of our technology, but also our capacity to meet the rigorous demands of government deployments. As borders evolve, we’re excited to partner with agencies around the world to enable secure, seamless, and trusted border crossings.
Doug Aley, CEO of Paravision

Technology Built for the Future of Borders

The Fortinus report emphasized several defining strengths of Paravision’s approach to high-assurance identity technology, positioning it as an ideal partner for border control and government use cases:

  • High-performing technology across demographics and environments, with validated accuracy as shown by both NIST and DHS performance benchmarks.  
  • A partner-first integration strategy, offering flexible, embeddable software components that allow governments and system integrators to address a wide range of mission-specific use cases.
  • A principled, ethics-driven approach, including a refusal to support misuse of biometric technology and a commitment to equitable performance that aligns with the highest standards of human rights and privacy.
  • Future readiness for emerging fraud threats, with liveness detection, deepfake detection, and ongoing advancements to address next-gen identity threats.
  • Established partnerships with government agencies, including deployments in North America, UK, and EU, demonstrating operational credibility and a trusted position in national security ecosystems.

For more information about the report, please email [email protected].