£10M Lloyds Investment to Fuel Development of New Yoti Solution

Lloyds Banking Group has made a £10 million investment in digital identity specialist Yoti, a fellow United Kingdom-based firm.

The investment comes as Yoti enjoys a rising profile in the country, thanks in part to government authorities’ embrace of digital identity technology. New regulatory frameworks including the UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF) and the Digital Identity Certification Scheme (DICS) have established official, government-sanctioned use cases for digital identity solutions, and innovative vendors have begun to thrive—perhaps especially those offering selfie-based identity verification systems, such as Yoti.

“We are thrilled to be supporting Yoti and their experienced, passionate team with their work to further protect people online, through developing and growing digital identity solutions,” said Lloyds Banking Group FinTech Investment Director Kirsty Rutter. “We know how important fintechs and technology partners are for delivering better outcomes for our customers and this investment represents another step forward in our plans to strengthen the UK’s financial ecosystem and is a crucial part of how we help Britain prosper.”

Lloyds has demonstrated an interest in innovative biometric technologies before. For instance, the company embraced behavioral biometrics technology from CallSign as early as 2019. It has previously shown an interest in Yoti—this is Lloyds first investment in the firm.

In announcing the investment, Yoti noted that the funding will support its development of a new “reusable digital identity proposition” that will be positioned to complement its existing solutions. The company was tight-lipped about details, but further explained that the forthcoming solution “will give users a more private, secure and convenient way to prove their identity.”

Lloyds’ investment came by way of its Fintech Investment unit, which is focused on early-stage startups raising capital through Seed, Series A, or Series B funding rounds.

Beyond the UK, Yoti’s technology has recently been getting some attention through its role in a new age verification system on Instagram, a trial of which rolled out in Canada this week.

(Originally published on FindBiometrics)