U.K. payment and loyalty app startup Yoyo Wallet entered into a major partnership agreement this week. The deal, worth $30 million, is with Greg Kidd’s investment firm Hard Yaka. Well-known in the fintech industry, Kidd was an early investor in Ripple, Square, Twitter, and Coinbase.

For its end of the deal, Yoyo will integrate its commerce API with Hard Yaka’s Global ID, a global user identification platform. Global ID helps users prove their identity via their electronic footprint. The tool’s identity token is a key feature to help users make purchases online and in-store; this commerce element is where Global ID will leverage Yoyo’s loyalty and purchasing app.

“Yoyo is the cornerstone to the global delivery of the Hard Yaka vision. We know about data – and our collaboration together will generate a boost to the Global ID movement that will shape the future of the global consumer market and disrupt the status quo,” said Yoyo chairman Alain Falys.

In praise of Yoyo’s secure and scalable platform, Hard Yaka founder and CEO Greg Kidd said, “Yoyo has a very sophisticated technology that includes a nimble application programming interface that makes it easy to integrate into the Yoyo Platform. This will enable users to pay for goods and services and receive loyalty rewards and other benefits through a mobile device – without compromising the security of the consumer or giving up more private details than necessary.”

Yoyo was founded in 2013 and processes more than two million transactions per month for its more than 800,000 users. The company recently demoed retailer-specific bank card loyalty solution at FinovateEurope 2018. Yoyo has raised $30.3 million from Metro Group, Touchstone Innovations, Woodford, and Firestarter. This summer, the company launched a new feature that allows users to order ahead. Weeks later, Yoyo announced it exceeded one million users on its platform.

Congratulations to Yoyo! The U.K.-based mobile payments and loyalty marketing platform topped its one million user mark this week. Surpassing this milestone comes less than a month after the company announced a new strategic partnership with Visa to enable consumers to earn their loyalty program benefits when using their Visa card with Yoyo-partnered merchants.

Yoyo commemorated the occasion in part with an interview with  its one millionth customer – a Londoner who downloaded the app “a couple of weeks ago” – at the company’s blog. Asked what she has purchased most frequently with her Yoyo app so far, Gloria responded “Definitely coffee!”

Simon Moran (Chief Commercial Officer) and Dave Nicholson (Co-Founder and VP Strategic Partnerships) demonstrating Yoyo’s platform at FinovateEurope 2018.

“Crossing the 1 million user hurdle is something we at Yoyo are immensely proud of,” said Michael Rolph, who was promoted to company CEO in December. “What makes our user metrics even more impressive is the fact we have done it completely organically, whilst building a sustainable and scalable business model.”

Founded in 2013, Yoyo demonstrated its retailer-specific bank card loyalty solution at FinovateEurope 2018. The company’s technology matches card transactions with retailer’s till transactions in real time, linking the customer’s cart with their card payment. Yoyo then applies its loyalty engine to the customer’s cart and seamlessly applies any relevant rewards as if the consumer had used the Yoyo app.

Saying that Yoyo is “truly unlocking the power of payment data,” Rolph put the company’s innovations into an even broader perspective. “We believe the future is about bank enablement, rather than disruption and have some big announcements to come.” Rolph underscored the company’s partnership with Starling Bank and Visa, calling it “proof that the banking sector is beginning to see the need to deliver a Yoyo-powered experience to their customers – watch this space.”

Last month, Yoyo announced a partnership with Preoday, a digital ordering and pre-payment technology company. Through the agreement, consumers can use their Yoyo wallet to pre-order food and beverages at participating retailers. Also in June, the company earned a finalist spot in the TechCrunch Europas Awards in June, and unveiled a quarterly tracker to monitor customer purchasing trends in closed catering environments like workplace cafeterias. Named Best Mobile Payment Solution at the MPE Awards this spring, Yoyo has raised more than $30 million in funding, and includes SOSV among its investors.

U.K. payment and loyalty app startup Yoyo Wallet is saving users time by letting them skip the line. This news comes thanks to a partnership with Preoday, a digital ordering and pre-payment technology company.

With the new integration of Preoday’s order ahead solution, Yoyo wallet users can pre-order their food and beverage at participating retailers using the Yoyo app. This move will help small and medium retailers compete with popular brands such as Starbucks and Wetherspoons that offer this option.

Yoyo CEO Michael Rolph explained that the company has democratized customer information, making the data available to small, local retailers. “Through our partnership with Preoday we can now do the same when it comes to offering the most enhanced personalised customer services to retailers and caterers, big or small,” he said. “By creating a frictionless payment, loyalty and order ahead experience, based on consumer identity and purchasing preferences, Yoyo is now acting as the engine of business growth for our partners.”

Yoyo was founded in 2013 and is now available at more than 70 universities, in 200+ workplace food service locations, and at major retailers including Caffè Nero, Planet Organic, Harris + Hoole, HOP Vietnamese, and Wrap it Up. The company processes more than 2 million transactions per month for its more than 800,000 users.

Yoyo started as a pilot project at Imperial College and recently demoed retailer-specific bank card loyalty at FinovateEurope 2018. The new solution leverages open banking to match card transactions with a retailer’s till transactions in real time to link a customer’s purchases with their card payment. It applies its loyalty engine to the matched purchases and rewards the customer as if they had paid using the Yoyo app.

The company has raised $30.3 million from Metro Group, Touchstone Innovations, Woodford, and Firestarter. Earlier this spring, Yoyo was named Best Mobile Payment Solution at the Merchant Payments Ecosystem Awards.