Onfido

Onfido provides automated identity verification — combining document checks, facial biometrics, and data cross-references — so banks and fintechs can onboard customers remotely while meeting KYC and AML requirements. The platform compares a government-issued ID against a live selfie and runs checks against sanctions lists and watchlists. This allows institutions to approve legitimate users quickly without manual review.

Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy and Ruhul Amin co-founded Onfido in London in 2012 after graduating from Oxford. Kassai served as CEO until 2022, when Mike Tuchen — previously CEO of data-integration company Talend — took over the top role. The founding team has since moved on to other ventures.

Onfido reportedly explored an initial public offering in 2021 but chose to raise additional private capital instead. The firm ultimately agreed to be acquired by Entrust, a U.S.-based identity and payments company, in April 2024. Terms of the acquisition were not publicly disclosed.

The platform uses proprietary machine-learning models trained on a database of identity documents, enabling it to detect subtle forgery indicators — such as altered holograms and microprint — that commoditized API wrappers miss. It performs liveness detection to confirm the person holding the ID is physically present, not a photograph or video. This depth of analysis is designed to hold up under regulatory scrutiny.

The identity-verification space includes competitors like Jumio, Veriff, and Mitek, each offering overlapping document-checking and biometric capabilities. Trulioo and Socure compete from the data-source verification angle, cross-referencing personal information against third-party databases rather than examining documents optically. Onfido's positioning emphasizes the combination of document science with AI, rather than one layer alone.

Entrust, a privately held identity, payments, and data-security company headquartered in Minnesota, announced a definitive agreement to acquire Onfido (per Entrust's official press release, April 2024). The deal brings Onfido's AI-driven identity verification under Entrust's broader security portfolio. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approval and customary closing conditions.

Confirmed Onfido customers include fintech Revolut for digital onboarding, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase for KYC compliance, and cross-border payments platform Remitly (per the firm's public case studies and press materials). The client base spans banking, crypto, gaming, and government identity programs.