Onfido is a London-headquartered identity verification platform founded in 2012 by Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy, and Ruhul Amin while studying at Oxford. The company verifies identity documents and biometric selfies for hundreds of fintechs, banks, sharing-economy platforms, and online gambling operators, processing tens of millions of checks per year across more than 195 countries.
In April 2024, Onfido was acquired by Entrust, a Minneapolis-based identity and security business owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo, in a deal reportedly valued at around $650 million; the acquisition transformed Onfido from a standalone late-stage UK fintech into a wholly owned subsidiary of a US-headquartered group.
The principal UK entity remains Onfido Ltd., a private limited company registered at Companies House. Following the acquisition, Onfido continues to operate from London as the identity-verification line within Entrust's broader portfolio.
The group competes with Jumio, Veriff, Sumsub, and Persona in a crowded but rapidly consolidating KYC and AML market driven by EU AMLD6, the UK Economic Crime Act, and US BSA/AML enforcement.
The Onfido acquisition by Entrust in 2024 is a clean illustration of one of the most common UK exit pathways: trade sale to a US acquirer rather than IPO. The mechanics typically involve a Share Purchase Agreement under English law, completion filings at Companies House to update persons-with-significant-control, and a fresh confirmation statement listing the new ultimate parent.
For founder-shareholders and EIS investors, this is also the moment of liquidity: EIS shares held for at least three years qualify for full exemption from capital-gains tax on disposal, while EIS deferral relief on earlier gains may crystallise. Onfido had previously raised more than $200 million across rounds led by TPG Growth, Salesforce Ventures, M12, and Crane Venture Partners.
Unlike Babylon Health or Cazoo, Onfido did not attempt a SPAC listing during the 2021 window, an interesting counterfactual because contemporaneous KYC peers like Mitek and Jumio were either already listed or considered SPAC routes.
The choice to remain private and exit via trade sale preserved valuation discipline through the 2022-2024 fintech downturn, and the trade-sale pathway also avoids the public-market overhead and disclosure obligations of UK Listing Rules.
From a structural perspective, the post-acquisition Onfido sits as a UK Ltd subsidiary inside a US group, a configuration that requires careful transfer-pricing documentation, intra-group licensing of intellectual property, and continuing UK corporate-tax filings under the diverted-profits and pillar-two regimes.
The Onfido story is also a reminder that AIM, the LSE's junior market, is rarely a good fit for late-stage venture-backed UK fintechs because free-float, working-capital, and market-cap thresholds tend to favour smaller industrial issuers rather than capital-hungry software companies.
Onfido was acquired by Entrust in April 2024 and is now a wholly owned subsidiary of the US-headquartered Entrust group, which is itself owned by private equity firm Thoma Bravo.
Yes. Onfido Ltd. remains a London-headquartered English Ltd registered at Companies House, operating as the identity-verification line within Entrust.
No. Onfido remained private throughout its life as a standalone company and was acquired via trade sale rather than an IPO or SPAC.
Onfido is not directly FCA-authorised because it provides supporting identity-verification services rather than carrying out regulated payment or banking activity, although it serves many FCA-authorised clients.
