Umazi, the due diligence platform automating enterprise identity verification, has secured over €880k from Innovate UK and other angel investors. At the same time, the London-based startup is announcing new partnerships with Artesian:DueDil & ComplyAdvantage.
It’s believed that 60% of companies view compliance as a barrier to entering new markets. From high costs and slow turnaround times due to diligence checks, compliance matters can prove a bit of a headache for growing companies. Further, checks need to be refreshed periodically across different scenarios, including supply chain, funding, sustainability – to name just a few – slowing the process even more.
This is where Umazi wants to disrupt the status quo. With its distributed ledger technology (DLT), Umazi drastically reduces the complexity of the compliance process by creating secure digital identities featuring due diligence credentials. These are then verified and validated by regulated entities and housed on an open-source permissioned blockchain platform – allowing for a real-time and transparent audit process, enabling financial institutions to manage their client data more effectively.
Founded in 2019, the female-led team is currently in Founders Factory’s accelerator programme where it has been collaborating with Aviva on potential opportunities to automate and streamline the onboarding of suppliers for enterprise businesses. The startup is also developing its proposition to overcome costly, onerous and duplicative compliance processes.
Cindy van Niekerk, Umazi’s founder and CEO, said: “It’s astonishing that enterprise due diligence is still such a costly, time-consuming exercise that is repeated over and over again. It is clear due diligence is ripe for tech disruption and we are the first and only tech platform to take on the challenge. With new funds in the bank and global partnerships in place, we’re already demonstrating how Umazi brings fuss-free digital due-diligence.”
Already, the young company is working with market leaders like Artesian:DueDil and ComplyAdvantage – aiming to set the standard for enterprise due diligence processes for the SME market. The new funding injection will help fuel the regtech startup’s ambition to set the global standard for cross-industry digital identity and compliance.
Ben Luckett, Chief Innovation Officer, Aviva plc adds: “Umazi have helped us better understand the potential we have to automate and streamline our onboarding of suppliers. Both at Aviva and across the industry there is an increasing focus on how we make these processes easier, and we are confident that Umazi are well placed to solve this challenge”.
