Braid careers

Braid is fundamentally a digital identity business – digital identity being a priority of the present UK government, and an area where they are actively seeking help from the private sector having failed to establish a successful government-administered solution. To quote a recent Cabinet Office paper: “If we could securely and easily prove our identity…it would help support innovation, reduce fraud and cost, safeguard our privacy, and streamline online services.”

We will create value by providing a fast, secure, convenient way for consumers to prove their identity in an online environment – based primarily on their bank account credentials, accessed via Open Banking – while charging enterprise clients for access to this service. There are a wide range of use cases for digital identity, from the very obvious (confirming transactions, onboarding new customers or employees, signing to confirm receipt of a package) to the slightly more esoteric (schoolteachers verifying the identity of an unfamiliar individual who arrives to pick up a student from school).

However, we also recognise that digital ID verification is not something that many consumers understand, let alone recognise the benefits of. As such, we are seeking to attract users to our platform by offering a “financial operating system” that will help them to manage all their finances in an optimal way, from a single interface. Our leadership team has a clear understanding of how banks capitalise on information asymmetry, lack of financial literacy, and inertia on the part of customers. We will provide automated, context specific interventions and guidance to overcome this – for example by: suggesting how consumers can reallocate funds to maximise interest earned while minimising interest paid out; warning of a missed payment (or insufficient funds to make a scheduled payment); highlighting behaviours or circumstances that will negatively impact credit scores; recommending better value products or providers.