At Yoti, we believe there’s tremendous potential to be gained if everyone has access to a digital identity. That’s why over the past few years, we have invested millions into giving people an easier and safer way to prove who they are.
Our latest funding round of £8 million new equity investment will help us continue to grow our consumer network, invest in product development and expand our operations globally. This funding has come from existing private investors, employees and our CEO and Co-founder Robin Tombs. This gives Yoti a post-money equity valuation of £82 million, following two previous investment rounds.
This funding round is another great milestone for the team, following a very busy time since our launch in November 2017!
Some of our highlights
Since launch, we’ve started working with Heathrow Airport to explore biometric travel for passengers, partnered with global checkout leader NCR to improve age verification at self-checkouts, and last year we were chosen by the Government of Jersey as its digital identity provider, with 10 percent of the Jersey adult population now using Yoti. And as of this year, over 2,000 convenience stores throughout the UK are fighting underage sales and the rise of fake IDs by using Yoti to verify the age of customers for age-restricted goods.
We’ve developed our AI age estimation technology, Yoti Age Scan, developed several licensable IP products around anti-spoofing, and signed the Safe Face Pledge to demonstrate our commitment towards a fair and transparent approach towards biometrics and AI.
Social networking app Yubo are using Yoti Age Scan to estimate the age of individuals, and flag any accounts where the person appears to have significantly misstated their age – a vital step to help safeguard young people online. Yubo has already run over 22 million checks using Yoti Age Scan, and tens of thousands of users have already verified their Yubo profile with the Yoti app.
We’ve also been busy expanding our team in Bangalore and in the US, exceeded 4.7 million app downloads, and developed a private and secure age verification solution ProveMyAge. This will help adult websites comply with the age verification requirements of the upcoming Digital Economy Act, set to come into force later this year. We became the first company to achieve the BBFC Age Verification Certification Scheme for this, showing our commitment to privacy and data security.
We’ve also kicked off our Social Impact work, which aims to develop solutions for grassroots, local communities and developing countries; helping to address the 1.1 billion people around the world who do not have any form of identification.
Stay tuned
It’s been a busy time and there’s still plenty more to come. This latest funding round will help us on our mission to be the world’s trusted identity system and give everyone a simpler, safer way of proving their identity.