Yoti raises £8m equity investment

London-headquartered Digital Identity player Yoti has raised £8m of new equity investment in a move that gives the company a new valuation of £82m, following two previous successful investment rounds.

The company says it will use the funds to “continue to grow its consumer network, invest in product development, and expand its operations globally”. The money is coming not from VC firms, interestingly, but more from existing private investors, employees – and even its own Co-Founder and Chief Executive, Robin Tombs.

Founded in 2014, Yoti, which markets itself as a free consumer app that lets people prove their identity to businesses and people, and prove their age online and to purchase age-restricted goods, now claims a wide customer base including Government of Jersey, a biometric pilot at Heathrow Airport, age-verification at self-checkouts with NCR and work with social discovery app Yubo to verify the age of its users and safeguard young people online.

The company claims over 4.7m downloads, and has expanded its US and Bangalore operations this year.

Commenting on the latest cash injection, Tombs, noted that, “We believe there’s tremendous potential in the use of digital identity for everyone.

“Over the past few years we have invested about £65m to develop our privacy-preserving identity system, giving individuals a safe and secure way to prove their age or identity, for free. 

“This latest funding round will help us to continue to grow our consumer network and work with businesses globally to give as many people as possible a simpler and safer way of proving who they are.”