Yoti, the leading UK-based digital identity app, announced the appointment of Shantaram Jonnalagadda as the Country Head for Yoti India. Shantaram will be responsible for Yoti’s India business and will spearhead the company’s expansion in the country. India is a key market for Yoti, where over 330 million adults have smartphones and millennials are well educated and open to adopting new technologies.
Yoti transforms government approved paper ID documents, like passports, into a digital identity, giving individuals and businesses an easier and more secure way to prove and verify identity, online and in person. The company is looking to expand its presence in India, at a time when online commerce and services on the one hand and identity verification, digital identity and digital privacy on the other hand, are seeing unprecedented attention and adoption in the country. Yoti aims to hire about 100 people initially by the next year to set up product development and identity verification teams in India. Some of the senior profiles that the company is currently looking to hire in India are engineering head, project lead, product lead, developers (frontend, backend, iOS and android) and QA managers. Yoti will also hire 70 to 80 people with border security and Visa clearance experience as checkers for identity verification.
Shantaram has been on an entrepreneurial journey since 2008, across agriculture, retail analytics, e-commerce and design services (UX/UI) sectors. He is the former CEO of Kurinji Orchards India Limited, an agri-tech startup. He also served as the CBO at Moonraft Innovation Labs. He spent more than 14+ years at Infosys in different roles, primarily developing international markets for Finacle. He is an alumnus of Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and XLRI, Jamshedpur.
Yoti launched its India operations in February 2018. It has witnessed great interest from sectors like e-commerce, telecom, BFSI, fin-tech and travel and tourism. It has already partnered with TrulyMadly to create a safer community of online daters.
Speaking on the appointment and India plans, Robin Tombs, Co-Founder and CEO, Yoti says, “India is at the forefront of the digital identity revolution with Aadhaar. This, coupled with the size and opportunity that the country presents, makes it a very important market for us. It is good to have a seasoned leader like Shantaram heading our operations in the country. He brings with him an excellent mix of leadership, technical, product and sales experience and will drive our success in India.”
On his appointment, Shantaram Jonnalagadda says, “Businesses and consumers in India have the huge opportunity to embrace digital identities and in a way that enhances mutual benefits. Digital identities will soon become the preferred mode of sharing identity details across all walks of life. I think India is already at the inflection point when it comes to digital identity adoption and we at Yoti want to be at the forefront of this. I am excited to be leading Yoti India at this pivotal point.”