Oxford University Innovation startup helps companies vet employees quickly and at low cost
4th November 2014
Software startup Onfido has raised £500,000 in seed funding as its online real-time employee screening service is rolled out to help employers conduct vital background checks.
With the fine for hiring an illegal worker rising to £20,000 earlier this year, screening potential employees for identity, right to work and criminal record is now more important than ever. London-based startup Onfido provides an online real-time employee screening service which costs less than a third of traditional background checks, making it accessible to all companies including smaller businesses.
“We have ensured that cost and timeliness do not put screening beyond the reach of employers of high-risk low-skilled workers who would otherwise risk reputational damage and business disruption from bad hires,” said Onfido managing director Husayn Kassai.
“The average Onfido full check costs £26, and ID verification is £10. Our turnaround is around four and a half days for criminal record checks, instead of the industry average of 10-15 days and we’re able to return 85 per cent of employment verifications within 5 days.”
Onfido has raised £500,000 in seed funding from investors including the Saïd Business School Entrepreneurship Centre’s Seed Fund. The company has also completed the Oxford University Innovation Software Incubator programme.
Onfido has successfully introduced technology into an industry which has been heavily reliant on manual checks, opening the door for employers in sectors such as childcare, cleaning, and retail to conduct fast, inexpensive checks on right-to-work, ID verification and global criminal record checks.
Demand for the service has been so strong that Onfido has built an international client base of over 300 clients in eighteen months simply from referrals. Kassai said: “Our pricing is proving attractive to healthcare, childcare and retail employers where part-time workers are prevalent and bad hires can cause huge problems. People also log on to Onfido.com when employing managerial level staff since we’re much faster and less expensive than traditional screeners. We now offer ID checks across 28 countries and criminal record checks across the world.
“Oxford University Innovation has been a tremendous source of support from the outset both in terms of commercial contacts and also with regard to advice around developing and scaling our technology.”
Tom Hockaday, Managing Director of Oxford University Innovation which established the Isis Software Incubator in 2010, said: “Onfido’s digital screening provides a wide range of businesses with confidence and security in their hiring decisions, from large HR departments to small start-up employers. It is great to see another success from the Isis Software Incubator.”
Onfido’s systems are synchronised with official databases and data sources worldwide, enabling automated, real-time, online checks.
Kassai said the company plans to continue to invest in its technology in order to further reduce turnaround times and broaden its geographic reach.
Note: The maximum civil penalty for the employment of an illegal worker rose to £20,000 in May 2014 (https://www.gov.uk/government/news/tougher-penalties-to-combat-illegal-working)
Media enquiries to:
Robert Olford
Onfido
robert@onfido.com
+44 (0)20 8133 3628
Renate Krelle
Oxford University Innovation Ltd
renate.krelle@innovation.ox.ac.uk
T: +44(0)1865280867
Pictured L-R: Ruhul Amin (26) CTO, Eamon Jubbawy (22) COO, Husayn Kassai (24) CEO.
