Compass TV’s new Signal business show will be featuring ‘Business Incubators’ on a regular basis. This week, we sit down with Ken Adumekwe, CEO and founder of Yomoken
Give us a brief story of Yomoken
The company was incorporated in December 2024 but the Yomoken project started 11 months ago. The project has four partners who bring compliance, regulatory and software development experience.We are at startup phase and plan to go into production next year.
The idea was born from a post-drinks session following a Blockchain workshop where we thought about all things we wouldn’t need in the future. I thought we would no longer need physical wallets and then did a list of things that could be done with a digital wallet. I started with identity and then things snowballed from there.
What is your product?
Our product is called Yomoken. It creates a reusable digital identity that consumers can securely share with financial institutions or government agencies when needed. It will accelerate the client onboarding process from weeks to minutes and creates auditable records, making compliance and record-keeping faster and more cost-efficient.
How can your product help people?
It will make the process of verifying identity easier, more convenient and secure whilst providing greater protection against financial crime. There are three key stakeholder groups when it comes to identity verification: consumers, businesses and government/regulators.
Consumers can prove who they are in minutes instead of repeatedly submitting documents. Businesses can onboard customers more efficiently while meeting compliance requirements. Regulators benefit from improved oversight with less administrative burden.
What our platform does is create a digital ecosystem that connects these three stakeholders so that regulators can supervise businesses more effectively with fewer resources, businesses can verify customers more efficiently and at a lower cost, and customers can verify their identity quickly with fewer concerns on the security of their personal data.
In a world where commerce is predominantly carried out digitally and is the main method by which Cayman business interacts with overseas clients, a digital solution to reduce fraud and accelerate onboarding and transaction processing times is something Cayman needs.
How will Yomoken make money?
Yomoken operates using a competitive subscription-based B2B and B2G model. This enables consumers to verify their identity for free. We have agreed with our due diligence partner that the cost of verification will be a one-time fee with reuse of the individual’s verified identity being provided at a low marginal cost to us. That allows us to price our subscription tiers competitively.
This allows margins to improve as usage scales. It is one of the few businesses where the more the product is reused, the stronger the margins become.
What makes your product stand out from the competition?
The biggest differentiator is that the product has been designed by compliance professionals from the ground up.
We are using technology to create a verified identity that is immutable and unique like our identity should be. We make it reusable across multiple platforms. It is a product that has been designed by compliance professionals brought to life by IT Developers and not the other way around. It has been developed to help not only consumers and businesses but also relieve the pain points experienced by regulators with regards to identity verification.
Across Cayman and globally, there is increasing demand for data privacy and self-sovereignty. Consumers want to be able to control who has custodianship of their personal data as well as limit exposure to their data. Privacy is central to the platform. Customers remain in control of their data and decide how and when it is shared, reducing reliance on centralised databases and lowering exposure to cyber risks. Encryption technology allows us to do this.
What makes us stand out is that it is a hybrid application. As a small business you can simply plug in and play. No need for expensive implementation or APIs. For larger businesses we are developing an API to integrate Yomoken into your existing client onboarding platforms seamlessly. We are working on one now for a prospective client, a Web3 platform operator that will be providing a marketplace for digital tokenised financial services.
What is the next stage in Yomoken’s growth?
The next stage is engaging with strategic partners and increasing marketing and promotion with a view to establishing additional partners to start our pilot programme.
We have not yet widely marketed the application, which is one of the reasons we are here today. We want to engage with additional contributors and also begin discussions with government and regulators about how our solution can help them.
The new digital identity card for Cayman residents will help facilitate local access to public and financial services in Cayman, but we also need a solution that supports seamless commerce with international clients
What type of investment are you looking for?
We are open to different types of investment opportunities.
At this stage, the product development is close to completion, so we do not need major funding for development itself. The next phase is around strategic partnerships, marketing and promotion.
We are seeking strategic investors who can support market expansion and client acquisition. While product development is largely complete, investment will accelerate partnerships and growth. Depending on the structure, we would consider offering 10% to 20% equity.
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