TECH5 POLITICAL

Research date: 25 September 2026. The target is TECH5 SA / TECH5 Group, the Swiss biometric and digital identity company at tech5.ai. Its privacy policy identifies TECH5 SA as a Geneva-based entity. TECH5 Inc./TECH5 USA is a group subsidiary. TOTM Technologies reported a 16.27% TECH5 holding at 31 May 2026, but reported losing its TECH5 board representation and significant influence following a May 2026 shareholder-agreement amendment. TOTM is identified here as an investor, not TECH5’s parent.^{1, 2, 3, 4}

Corporate Communications & Public Stance

Statements. No public evidence identified in the searched company announcements of an official TECH5 or TECH5 USA statement addressing the Israel–Palestine conflict, Palestinian civilian harm, the 19 July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion, or the November 2024 ICC warrants.^{5, 6}

Comparative public posture. TECH5 published 2024–25 announcements about a Mauritanian government pilot and identity programmes in Ethiopia, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea. These describe projects, not corporate positions on armed conflicts. A TECH5-hosted interview discusses Ukraine’s digital-government system as an example given by a Visa participant; it does not document a TECH5 Ukraine humanitarian or connectivity-relief programme. No verified Israel/settlement integration or comparable TECH5 conflict-relief campaign was established from the reviewed documents, leaving the proposed comparative-silence premise unresolved.^{7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12}

Market framing. TECH5 describes its business as biometric identity, digital ID, and digital public infrastructure for government and private users. Its December 2022 announcement describes a strategic investment and technology partnership with uqudo, a Middle East and Africa digital identity provider. It does not identify an Israeli state customer or territorial deployment.^{13, 14}

Operations in Occupied or Contested Territories

Territorial presence and the uqudo distinction. TECH5 says uqudo integrates TECH5 facial authentication and liveness SDKs into uqudo’s overall offering. That general integration does not identify a Palestinian customer, programme-specific component, or implemented site. TECH5’s investment and SDK integration therefore do not establish a TECH5 deployment in Palestine. No public evidence identified of TECH5 or TECH5 USA operating in an Israeli settlement or supplying an Israeli state or military customer in the reviewed records.^{13, 3}

Programme-specific comparison. A February 2023 TECH5 announcement expressly identifies TECH5 facial recognition and liveness technology in an Oman election system developed with uqudo. A later announcement describes its use again in Oman’s 2023 elections. These sources establish an Oman-specific component link; they do not establish a Palestinian programme or the same component link there.^{15, 16}

Other disclosed territories. TECH5 identified a 2024 Mauritanian government pilot and 2025 identity projects in Ethiopia, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea. Those sources do not establish operations in occupied Palestinian territory or Israeli settlements.^{7, 8, 9, 10, 11}

Legal scrutiny and campaigns. No public evidence identified of a TECH5-specific UN settlement-database listing, occupied-territory court proceeding, regulatory action, or organized boycott, divestment, or sanctions campaign in the focused online searches. The local curated NGO-report library was inaccessible, and the online UN document interfaces did not support a reliable full-text target-name verification in this session. This is a bounded research absence rather than a certification of non-inclusion.^{5, 13}

Internal Governance, Content & Retail Policies

Employee relations. No public evidence identified of TECH5 or TECH5 USA disciplining employees, suing a union, or enforcing rules against employee speech or symbols concerning Israel–Palestine in the focused searches.^{5, 6}

Platform and editorial policy. TECH5 markets biometric identity systems. TECH5 USA’s SOC 3 report describes a Law Enforcement 2.0 system and dedicated customer infrastructure using AWS GovCloud. No public evidence identified of a TECH5 public-content platform, Israel–Palestine content suppression, or asymmetric editorial moderation.^{14, 17}

Retail and sourcing. No public evidence identified of settlement-goods labelling, regional product-origin categorization, or a related retail or sourcing proceeding involving TECH5. The reviewed company descriptions concern identity technology rather than a consumer-goods catalogue.¹⁴

Brand Heritage & State Partnerships

Marketing positioning. In a [pre-2020] 2019 interview, TECH5’s founders discussed their earlier national ID and refugee-registration experience. Whether those prior individual relationships continued was not established. TECH5 USA publicly describes law-enforcement work. In October 2023 it announced a Leidos contract supporting the US Army’s Biometric-Enabled Capability Increment 1 programme; in November 2024 it announced a 15-year Virginia State Police livescan contract with an estimated value of US$54 million. These are US institutional relationships. Neither announcement identifies Israel, the IDF, or settlements.^{18, 19, 20}

Institutional ties and sponsorships. TECH5 disclosed a 2024 Mauritanian digital ID pilot arising from a ministry/UNDP tender and 2025 government identity programmes in Ethiopia, Honduras, and Papua New Guinea. No public evidence identified of an Israeli state cultural sponsorship, settlement-event sponsorship, or comparable “Brand Israel” campaign involving TECH5.^{7, 8, 9, 10}

Lobbying, Advocacy, Financing & Logistics

Political lobbying. No public evidence identified in the focused corporate, principal-name, and advocacy searches of TECH5, TECH5 USA, or a named controlling principal lobbying on Israel–Palestine policy, anti-BDS legislation, or settlement policy. TOTM’s 2026 filing establishes an investor position but no current board representation or significant influence over TECH5.²

Financial contributions. No public evidence identified of a corporate or named-principal donation to the IDF, FIDF, JNF/KKL, Israeli reservist or military-welfare funds, or a settlement organization. The documented TOTM transactions and TECH5’s 2022 fundraising are commercial financing, not evidence of such donations. Comprehensive private or foundation giving records were not obtained.^{2, 21, 22}

Crisis asset mobilization. No public evidence identified of TECH5 directing free technology, logistics, personnel, or infrastructure to Israeli state, military, or aligned organizations during the conflict, including after 19 July or November 2024. Its disclosed October 2023 Leidos contract concerns a US Army programme and cannot be attributed to Israeli crisis support.¹⁹

Corporate Structure & Primary Mission

A January 2021 Singapore exchange announcement identified Swiss-incorporated TECH5 and stated that Rahul Ganpat Parthe and Machiel van der Harst each then held 50% of its ordinary share capital. TECH5 and TOTM announced completion of TOTM’s US$8 million share subscription and conversion of a US$2.5 million loan in October 2021, at which point TOTM CEO Pierre Prunier joined TECH5’s board. TOTM’s FY2026 filing reports a 16.27% holding at 31 May 2026 and the end of its board representation in May 2026. The 2021 equal-founder split is historical; a complete current capitalization table was not established.^{23, 21, 2}

TECH5 identifies TECH5 Inc. as the US subsidiary that acquired Imageware assets in January 2023. TECH5 USA also expressly calls itself a TECH5 Group subsidiary. The group privacy policy identifies TECH5 SA as the Swiss controller of its demonstration mobile app and describes US East (Ohio) processing for that app; this is not a statement about uqudo’s services.^{4, 3, 1}

In the [pre-2020] 2019 founder interview, Parthe described TECH5’s name as meaning “technology for inclusion.” TECH5’s 2022 biometric-data principles describe consent-based training data and certified-partner controls as its stated policies. No public evidence identified in the reviewed corporate records of a state-held golden share, a charter mandating Israeli geopolitical activity, or a founding mission tied to such activity. A complete current charter was not retrieved.^{18, 24, 14}

Executive & Leadership Footprint

Identified leaders. Parthe and van der Harst are the named founders and historical equal owners. TECH5 USA’s SOC 3 management assertion names Steve Kelly as managing director, and the subsidiary announced Gary Newlin’s appointment as US vice president in June 2025. Uqudo’s founder and CEO Mohamed Fagiri is a partner/investee-company principal; no reviewed document identifies him as a TECH5 director. TOTM’s Pierre Prunier was appointed to TECH5’s board in 2021, but TOTM reported ending its board representation in May 2026.^{23, 17, 3, 13, 21, 2}

Personal philanthropy and financing. No public evidence identified in the focused searches of Israel–Palestine advocacy, military-welfare, or settlement donations or fundraising by Parthe, van der Harst, Kelly, Newlin, Prunier, or Fagiri. TECH5’s 2022 financing announcement names Tan Chin Tuan as a participant in an investment round but establishes neither a current percentage stake nor relevant political philanthropy.²²

Public advocacy and affiliations. The reviewed founder interview addresses identity inclusion and earlier ID projects; it is [pre-2020], and any relevant continuing affiliation is unknown. No public evidence identified of a conflict-related endorsement, anti-BDS statement, settlement-event appearance, or Israel-focused advocacy-board role by the named TECH5 leaders. This finding is limited by the absence of comprehensive personal giving and affiliation records.¹⁸