Clive Summerfield, Founder and CEO of FARx, brings over 30 years of global expertise in speech and speaker recognition technologies. With a PhD from The University of Sydney and more than 20 patents granted across six countries, Clive’s innovations are shaping the future of secure human-computer interaction.

With headquarters in Great Malvern, FARx is part of one of the UK’s most advanced cybersecurity clusters. The company is developing ground-breaking biometric technology that fuses voice and face recognition to protect against fraud, impersonation, and digital identity theft.

Innovation backed by local support

FARx received a £14,000 Innovation Worcestershire Grant, which significantly accelerated the development and integration of their AI-powered technology into real-world applications, including Microsoft Teams. This funding enabled FARx to scale its operations, refine its systems, and continue building its presence in Worcestershire’s thriving tech ecosystem.

"The support we received allowed us to bring our technology to life in ways we couldn’t have done alone," Clive explains. "It helped us translate years of R&D into a scalable solution ready for commercial deployment."

Technology with a purpose

FARx’s AI platform is designed to verify human identity using a combination of voice biometrics and facial recognition, ensuring that interactions with technology are secure, personalised, and trustworthy. The system can detect cloned or synthesised voices and faces crucial in preventing fraud and cybercrime in sectors like banking, corporate IT, and cybersecurity.

One key application includes verifying individuals inside secure facilities by matching their voice to an assigned number and alerting supervisors in real time. FARx’s innovation is also being explored for use in dementia care, where voice and facial cues can help monitor attentiveness and wellbeing.

Roots in research and local collaboration

Originally developed in Australia, Clive’s voice recognition algorithms provided the foundation for his early ventures. After successfully exiting his Australian business, he relocated to Malvern and established FARx, recognising Worcestershire’s growing reputation as a hub for tech innovation.

Since then, he has expanded both his business and intellectual property base in the region, securing investment, contributing to the local tech community through BetaDen Cohort 2, and mentoring the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Through BetaDen, Clive submitted his proposal and described FARx as "the ChatGPT of voice-face recognition" an AI system that not only recognises who you are, but how you communicate, adapting its responses and verifying authenticity through hyper-personalised interaction.

Looking ahead

FARx is working at the cutting edge of what human-AI interaction can become. Its ability to detect subtle biometric cues enables it to differentiate between real and synthetic users, making it a powerful tool in the age of deepfakes and AI impersonation.

As Clive puts it, “The more you interact with our AI, the more it learns to understand you - and the better it gets at knowing when it’s not you.”

The Council’s business support and grant have played a vital role in bringing this vision closer to reality. FARx is now set to redefine how we think about identity, security, and intelligent technology.