Yoti secures £10 million in equity, supports faster right to work checks

Yoti appears to be stringing together a chain of wins heading into the final quarter of 2024, with financial and strategic moves positioning the company to handle a large share of the UK digital identity market.

Lloyd’s Banking Group has converted a £10 million loan it granted to Yoti in February 2023 into equity in the biometrics firm. In a release announcing the commitment, Yoti CEO Robin Tombs says the company, which provides biometric ID verification, age verification and age estimation,  is “confident that securing the UK’s largest banking group by customer numbers as a shareholder will help accelerate the adoption of reusable digital ID in the UK market.”

Writing on LinkedIn, Tombs highlights another development: the company is helping the University of Sheffield and over 50 other UK universities provide more efficient Right to Work (RTW) checks.

“There is a mostly out of sight digital ID revolution taking place in the UK,” Tombs says. “Since the UK Govt started to allow certified remote ID checks for DBS (Criminal Record) checks and Right to Work checks, many UK adults are taking the logical step to create and use their certified reusable digital ID to complete these checks.”

Tombs cites research numbers showing that, among UK adults offered the choice to do RTW or DBS ID checks with either an ID doc and face match or reusable digital identity, 68 of UK adults choose either Yoti’s EasyID reusable digital ID or the reusable Lloyds Bank Smart ID.

In a release, the University’s HR and Recruitment Services Team says Yoti’s offering provides “an efficient, accurate and streamlined Right to Work process; improving the overall candidate experience and meeting compliance with ease.” It says using Yoti has reduced the time required to complete an RTW check from 20 minutes to five minutes.

A further financial benefit is noted for a large organization that completes a large volume of checks, which can be difficult to estimate. U Sheffield favors “the flexibility of Yoti’s offering, allowing them to pay for only the checks they need.”

Finally, in Northern Ireland, Translink’s Yoti-supported yLink digital card program, which offers discount travel on services across the public transit network, has proven to be a big hit. Down News reports that the yLink system has seen a 60 percent increase in journeys throughout Northern Ireland over the last year.

Yoti provides the free Translink Travel U16 Youth ID digital credential free on its app, giving students an easier way to provide proof of age for half-off fares.

Maeve Nethercott of Translink says the yLink card and its digital counterpart “continues to be incredibly popular as growing numbers of young people opt for cleaner, greener and more cost-effective travel”.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital identity  |  face biometrics  |  identity verification  |  investment  |  remote identity proofing  |  reusable identity  |  Yoti