Entrust in Talks to Buy Onfido

Entrust is reportedly in talks to acquire London-based Onfido. While the talks are in an early stage, Onfido founder and former CEO Husayn Kassai has indicated that the deal is expected to result in a profit for all of Onfido’s investors, which include the likes of Salesforce’s VC arm and Oxford University.

In a statement, Entrust explained that bringing Onfido under its umbrella would “add a market-leading, compliant AI/ML-based biometric and document IDV tech stack to its portfolio of identity solutions.” It would also bring to Entrust a pioneering “Fraud Lab” in which experts including former border agents and police have been training AI systems on synthetic online identities in an effort to develop highly sophisticated anti-fraud models.

“We chose to enter into discussions to acquire Onfido because we believe they have the best-in-class IDV team, capabilities and tech stack in the world,” commented Entrust’s President and CEO, Todd Wilkinson. “Deepfakes and synthetic identity are driving a global need for a powerful level of identity assurance that facilitates crucial digital journeys in banking, finance, government, travel, and more. Step-up authentication using biometric-based, AI-driven identity verification will be critical to ensuring security, privacy, and trust in these high-value digital-first interactions.”

For Onfido, the deal would represent a significant milestone after more than a decade of growth and multiple funding rounds. When Onfido announced the promotion of Yuelin Li to the role of Chief Strategy Officer in 2022, there was talk of aiming for an eventual IPO. Since then, the company has acquired Airside, extending Onfido’s presence into air travel thanks to the latter’s digital credential technology.

At present, Onfido has over 500 employees, more than 1,200 customers internationally, and annually recurring revenues exceeding $130 million. CEO Mike Tuchen commented that the prospective deal with Entrust would “potentially expand access to the most advanced and secure digital identity verification solutions worldwide.”

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February 7, 2024 – by Alex Perala