Touche hopes to pioneer new fingerprint payment method
Singapore-based payments start-up Touche, after raising $2m in 2016, is launching its fingerprint payments service into restaurants and stores this year. Users of the service are required to sign up with their fingerprints, and to associate their fingerprints with their credit cards, which then allows them to use their fingerprint to pay in any restaurant or store that has a Touche device. Last year, a study by Visa revealed that two-thirds of European consumers said that they would want to use biometrics when making payments.

Mobile payments are so 2016.

That's the belief of one start-up that is hoping consumers will ditch the device altogether and use their fingerprints instead.

Touché, a startup based in Singapore, raised $2 million last June and is launching in restaurants and stores this year, allowing consumers to sign up with their fingerprints and attach their aliases to a credit card, which would enable them to use their fingerprint on any Touché device globally.

But the devices are only at a handful of venues thus far, while the consumer adoption rate has yet to be seen.

While more and more airports globally are requiring biometric information, it is less clear how willing customers will be to hand over their fingerprints for the promise of more convenience.

"Is it their concern? I'll be lying to say no," Sahba Saint-Claire, founder of Touché told CNBC. "But I've had ladies in their 60s registering, millennials registering, and professional people in suits registering, so I think the solution we're talking about transcends age, gender and race."

Consumer interest seems to be growing, though. According to a study by Visa last year, two-thirds of consumers in Europe said they wanted to use biometrics when making payments, while half believed that payments will be easier and faster using the technology.