UK-based credentials checking service Onfido raised $50m on Wednesday in a funding round co-led by Salesforce Ventures and SBI Investment subsidiaries of enterprise software producer Salesforce and financial services firm SBI.
M12 and CreditEase Ventures, respective investment vehicles for software provider Microsoft and online lending platform CreditEase, also took part in the round, as did Fin Venture Capital, Acequia Capital, Tuesday Capital, Crane Venture Partners, Idinvest Partners, Augmentum Fintech, Wellington Partners, B&Y Venture Partners, TempoCap and Talis Capital.
Founded in 2012, Onfido runs a service that helps organisations verify a user’s digital identity by applying machine learning and facial biometrics to identification documents and selfies.
The company has more than 1,500 customers including vehicle rental marketplace Drivy, fantasy sports game provider DraftKings, crowdfunding platform Indiegogo and financial remittance service Remitly.
In addition to advancing product development, proceeds from the round will be used to consolidate Onfido’s position in its home country and support further expansion in Europe and Southeast Asia. Frank van Veenendaal, vice-chairman of Salesforce for three years until 2015, has joined its board of directors.
The round valued Onfido at about $250m, a source close to the investors told The Telegraph. Crane Venture Partners led a $30m series C round for the company in September 2017, investing alongside M12 and Salesforce Ventures.
Onfido had raised an undisclosed amount from Salesforce Ventures, Talis Capital, Charlie Songhurst and Hank Vigil in August 2016, four months after a $25m series B round that included Idinvest Partners, Wellington Partners and CrunchFund.
Wellington Partners led the company’s $4.5m series A round the year before, which included CrunchFund and assorted angel investors. Onfido graduated from the software incubator of the University of Oxford’s tech transfer office, Oxford University Innovation, receiving $800,000 of seed capital in the process.