Onfido, an innovative start-up created by students at the University of Oxford, uses artificial intelligence to verify customer identities and has been sold to Entrust Corp, a global leader in trusted payments, identities and data security.
This purchase marks the highest value return on investment for a student-led start-up for the University of Oxford. The university proceeds will support and fund the creation of more companies and entrepreneurship programmes at Oxford.
Onfido was one of the first entrants into Oxford University Innovation’s Incubator in 2012, an entrepreneurship programme that helped to nurture the technology developed by student founders Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy, and Ruhul Amin.
In 2013, while pursuing their studies at Saïd Business School, the team went on to receive £20,000 in early phase funding through the Entrepreneurship Centre’s Oxford Seed Fund. This sale represents an 80 times return on the Oxford Seed Fund Investment.
Husayn Kassai, co-founder and former CEO at Onfido, said: “In 2012, at 22 years old, building a new way to verify identities online felt like a moonshot. Having support from Oxford Innovation’s first incubator provided a crucial launchpad – not only for the company but for our confidence.
"Oxford’s leap of faith into a nascent idea, was rocket fuel and I am incredibly grateful to Oxford University and the entire ecosystem for supporting our journey.
“Onfido’s exit demonstrates the powerful influence academic institutions hold in delivering outsized local and global impact. It is rewarding knowing that our exit’s returns are being reinvested by Oxford into supporting a new generation of entrepreneurs.”
Professor Chas Bountra, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Innovation, the University of Oxford, added: “Onfido has grown from a student startup into a 500-strong team with more than £140 million of revenue and customers worldwide.
"With its acquisition by Entrust, Onfido has shown that student-led companies can become phenomenally successful, inspiring a new generation of students, staff, and investors to cultivate our world-class innovation ecosystem in Oxford.”
Mairi Gibbs, CEO of Oxford University Innovation, said: “We are proud to have supported the Onfido team through Oxford’s earliest Incubator programme and to see the tremendous success of one of our first startups. The return received by OUI will be reinvested in our Incubator programme to provide more opportunities for our student and staff entrepreneurs to train, collaborate and create companies which deliver game-changing technology.”
Over the past 12 years the Onfido team has developed a cloud-based, AI-powered identity verification technology that helps millions access digital services every week – from billion-dollar institutions to hyper-growth startups across multiple sectors. Millions of customers joining a new digital bank or payments app use Onfido’s technology during the signup process.
Onfido’s technology is also used to verify a driving licence or passport with a smartphone camera.