£500K bridge · £1.5M on milestones · April 2026

The credential layer for
UK and EU verified commerce.

The UK Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework is statutory from December 2025. eIDAS 2.0 is mandatory across the EU from December 2026. Banks must accept verified digital credentials by November 2027. Inside that regime, every business needs a credential. Umazi is building it.

The thesis

Most of the value in the verified-identity market will accrue to the credential layer, not the application layer. The companies selling KYB, KYC, fraud scoring and onboarding are application-layer players. They sit above a missing primitive. Whoever owns the credential wins the economics, the distribution, and the regulatory advantage.

Umazi is building the primitive. Twelve signed clients. Five distribution channels reaching 1.23 million UK SMEs. Named to the UK CFIT Digital Verification Taskforce. First-mover on the DIATF standard.

Why now

These are not opinions. They are dates in primary legislation.

Four regulatory shifts converge inside twenty-four months. Every business operating in the UK or EU will need a credential that meets the standard. The market is being created by statute.

DEC 2025

UK DIATF statutory

Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework becomes statutory under the Data (Use and Access) Act.

2026 · LIVE

Companies House reform

ECCTA requires verified identities for every director and PSC. 6–7 million existing records to re-verify.

DEC 2026

eIDAS 2.0 mandatory

EU Digital Identity Wallet mandatory across every member state.

NOV 2027

Bank acceptance

Banks and payment firms must accept wallet-based verification. Credential becomes mandatory in every onboarding.

The wedge

Incumbents cannot occupy this layer without abandoning their current business.

Onfido, Trulioo, Dun & Bradstreet, Experian, ComplyAdvantage, Thomson Reuters. Each solves one buyer's problem. None issues the credential. Each is database-based and API-gated. The architecture that survives the new regulatory regime is different.

Subject-controlled by design

The credential is issued to the SME, signed by Umazi, held by the SME. DIATF and eIDAS 2.0 require this architecture. Retrofit is commercially impossible for data brokers.

Verifiable without the issuer

Relying parties verify the signature. The credential works offline. Database-based incumbents cannot meet the standard without rebuilding their commercial model.

AI-fraud resistant

Every attestation is cryptographically bound to a time and an issuer. No parsed PDFs. No probabilistic scoring. The architecture assumes an adversarial AI environment.

Built for agent commerce

AI agents transacting on behalf of businesses can verify the credential directly. The first agent-readable business identity layer. Every partner added grows the reachable agent network.

Aggregator-led distribution

Five signed channels. Combined reach of 1.23M UK SMEs. No paid customer acquisition. Each integration positions Umazi as the credential inside a platform the SME already uses.

Inside the standards process

Named to the CFIT Digital Verification Taskforce in 2025. Contributing to the trust framework blueprint that banks must accept from November 2027.

Traction

Signed. Live. Issuing credentials today.

Product live since 2025. £12 per wallet per year, paid upfront. Break-even target within twelve months. Every number below is a signed contract or an issued credential.

12
Signed Co.ID clients, live or onboarding
£2.2M
Raised to date (£1.69M equity + £520K grants)
£7.8M
Last round valuation (March 2025)
6 hours
Current verification time, industry benchmark is 140 days

Signed distribution · 1.23M UK SMEs

FSB
180K members
HSBC Innovation
Startup pipeline
Sage
400K SMEs
Tide
650K SMEs
Magic Sauce
Embedded issuance
Sovereign partnerships

First cross-border business-identity bridge.

Three agreements in execution. Each priced credibly against public data. Each carries strategic value larger than its direct revenue. Aggregate three-year envelope: £1.1M–£3M direct in the base case. £4M–£7.2M as a multi-jurisdiction blueprint.

🇮🇲

Isle of Man

LOI signed · POC
  • ~28,000 registered companies (IOM Companies Registry)
  • Digital Isle of Man named e-KYC a priority in 2023
  • Data Stewardship Foundation launched 2025
£300K–£500K direct Crown Dependencies blueprint: £900K–£1.4M
🇧🇭

Kingdom of Bahrain

MOU expected · POC
  • 367 licensed financial institutions (Bahrain EDB, 2025)
  • First GCC state to embed digital travel credentials
  • Running citizen-identity cross-border with Finland
£400K–£750K direct GCC blueprint: £2M–£4M
🇬🇧

Themis

MOU signed
  • UK AML and financial crime platform
  • £7.25M scale-up round closed December 2024
  • Umazi issues. Themis assesses. Non-competing
£360K–£1.8M direct Structural: Co.ID upstream of compliance
The Isle of Man and Bahrain POCs, run in parallel and designed to interoperate, would be the first verified business-identity bridge between two sovereign jurisdictions. The citizen-identity precedent exists. The business-identity precedent does not. Umazi would establish it.
The team

Sixty combined years in identity and RegTech. Eight prior exits.

Every senior hire has carried a regulated programme inside a tier-one institution. Operators who built the compliance systems we are now rewriting.

CvN
Cindy van Niekerk
Founder & CEO

15+ years at J.P. Morgan, HSBC, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Lloyds. Two prior exits in compliance and digital services. Named to the UK CFIT Digital Verification Taskforce. techUK Financial Services Council. Ayra founding board member.

RN
Richard Ney
CTO

20+ years in fintech. Former technology leader at two listed RegTech platforms. Built identity and AML infrastructure used by Tier 1 banks. Architect of the Co.ID credential stack. Advisor to LSE, JP Morgan, Deloitte Ventures.

MH
Michael Harvie
CRO

Commercial leader across three scaled exits. Owned the FSB, HSBC Innovation, Sage and Tide distribution deals personally. Scale-up GTM and institutional sales across UK and EU fintech.

JD
James Deely
COO (fractional)

Operations, banking, strategic leadership across regulated fintech. Building the operating models that will carry the credential layer to scale.

The ask

£500K now.
£1.5M on milestones.

Bridge round in two tranches of £250K. Instrument: ASA / convertible. Followed by a £2M–£3M institutional round once milestones land. Equity round opens at 500K Co.IDs live.

Funding to date: £2.2M total · £1.69M equity · £520K Innovate UK grants · Last valuation £7.8M (March 2025).

Use of funds
Product and engineering50%
Sales and aggregator GTM25%
Operations and compliance15%
Infrastructure10%
Milestones to next round
500K Co.IDs issued
First aggregator live and converting
Relying-party fee contracts signed
Break-even within 12 months

Category-defining infrastructure. Priced to build, not speculate.

Full strategic memo and financial model available under NDA. Conversation first.