# @forbes on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DZNBMfEDm2c
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/66275607-forbes-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/f5a87de07c.jpg
- **Posted:** 2026-06-05T12:00:11.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Forbes (@Forbes) — https://gondola.cc/Forbes

## Caption

At 6 a.m. on Tuesday at Newark International Airport, dozens of business travelers are cutting the 15-minute-long TSA line using Clear. High-tech cameras scan their faces and crunch their biometrics—jawbone contour, eye-socket depth, lip curvature—to verify their identity. Within seconds they’re through security—well, the ID-checking bit, at least—and dumping briefcases and carry-ons in bins to be scanned for bombs and forbidden liquids.⁣
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For $209 a year—chump change for many frequent fliers—Clear makes navigating the airport slightly faster and a little less unpleasant. Those relegated to less-speedy lines might grouse, but Clear’s 8.2 million members love it. The 16-year-old company, which struggled to make money in its earliest days, is now a profitable terminal mainstay, raking in $900 million in revenue and $168 million in net income in 2025.⁣
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“I think people continually underestimate how hard traveling is and how much people want help in travel,” says Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker, 53, who bought the company’s assets and 190,000 people’s fingerprints for $6 million when it went bankrupt during the financial crisis. Today you can use it at 60 American airports. ⁣
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The New York City–based firm, which went public in 2021, now has a market cap of $7.6 billion, transla­ting into a more than 1,000% return for Seidman Becker and her initial investors. Her 14.5% stake is worth $1.1 billion, making her one of America’s 44 self-made female billionaires.⁣
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Read more about the 2026 #SelfMadeWomen listee at the link in our bio. ⁣
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📸: Guerin Blask for Forbes

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