Online background checking firm Onfido, which specialises in providing automated background checks to the shared economy, has secured a $4.5m Series A funding round to fuel further expansion.
Having successfully signed up more than 400 clients across Europe including Handy, Homejoy and the recruitment giant Hays, Onfido is using the investment to further penetrate the US market and launch in other European countries later this year.
The funding round is led by EU fund Wellington Partners with Eric Archambeau joining the Onfido Board.
Other investors include CrunchFund and angels such as Brent Hoberman (co-founder, Lastminute.com), Nicolas Brusson (co-founder, BlaBlaCar), Greg Marsh (co-founder, Onefinestay), Spencer Hyman (co-founder, Artfinder) and Dan Cobley (former MD, Google UK).
Onfido’s technology allows the thousands of companies that make up the $26bn sharing economy market to carry out global remote verification on the workers that use their platforms.
Onfido can run a background check on everything from an identity check to verify a person is who they say they are right through to automated education, criminal and anti-money laundering checks.
They currently carry out their checks in 28 countries across Europe and are aiming to be in 35 countries by the end of the year.
Eric Archambeau of Wellington Partners said:
“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.”
Husayn Kassai, co-founder and CEO at Onfido, added:
“Remote and reliable verifications can be tricky for many companies. For example, over 4 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.”