Onfido secures $4.5m Series A funding to accelerate global growth

London-based background checking company Onfido has closed a $4.5m Series A funding round led by Wellington partners with participation from CrunchFund and angels Brent Hoberman, Nicolas Brusson, Greg Marsh, Spencer Hyman and Dan Cobley.

Founded just two years ago by Oxford graduates Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy and Ruhul Amin, the company specialises in providing automated background checks to the shared economy. Its innovative technology allows the thousands of companies in the $26bn sharing economy market to check on the identity, education, criminal and anti-money laundering history of the workers that use the platform.

Traditional background checking agencies verify information manually using labour intensive processes, whereas Onfido automates the collection and verification of data resulting in a faster and lower costing service, whilst still ensuring full legal compliance.

The company currently has more than 400 clients signed up in 28 countries across Europe, with ambitions to be in 35 by the end of the year. The latest round brings the total investment in the company to $5.3m and the additional funds will be used to accelerate international expansion.

CEO at Onfido Kassai said: “Remote and reliable verifications can be tricky for many companies. For example, over four million fake identities have been used to commit fraud in the UK. We ensure our clients are checking the correct person before carrying out additional checks.”

Eric Archambeau at Wellington Partners commented: “I have been impressed from the beginning with Onfido’s revolutionary technologies and the strength of its team. Some have called Onfido ‘the backbone of the sharing economy’ as their quick and efficient global background checks allow companies to build the trust that is central to the growth of their platform.

“The plan is use this round of funding to build out the technology and launch in more countries.”