Oxford graduates prepare for $100m payday after start-up sale

THREE Oxford graduates who started a software business while studying at university are in line for a payday of up to $100m (£79m) after it was snapped up by a US competitor.

The founders of Onfido, a UK start-up that develops ID- checking tools for companies such as Revolut, will receive the payout following a $650m sale of the business to American rival Entrust.

Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy and Ruhul Amin – who are all in their 30s – own around 15pc of the company between them.

Mr Kassai, previously the company’s chief executive, holds a stake worth more than $50m.

Dozens of staff members will also be handed millions of pounds, while Oxford University is in line for a payout because it became an early shareholder.

Mr Kassai and Mr Jubbawy, both economics graduates, have since left the business and gone on to found new start-ups. Mr Amin is still employed at the company as a senior executive.

The company is led by Mike Tuchen, an American technology executive.

Customers joining a new digital bank or payments app might use Onfido’s technology during the sign-up process, checking a driving licence or passport with the phone’s smartphone camera before scanning their face. Its tools can also perform other compliance or age verification checks.

Entrust, which is valued at more than $17.5bn, confirmed yesterday that it was in advanced talks to acquire the British business. The deal values Onfido, whose investors also include Microsoft, Salesforce, US fund TPG and Uk-listed investor Augmentum, at around $650m.

The rise of new artificial intelligence, which can generate fake images and videos, has prompted renewed interest in identity verification tools, said Todd Wilkinson, chief executive of Entrust.

Earlier this week, it emerged that a finance worker in Hong Kong had been tricked into handing £20m of company money to fraudsters after joining a virtual meeting where all other participants were AI clones of real people.

Mr Wilkinson said: “Deepfakes and synthetic identity are driving a global need for a powerful level of identity. Biometric-based, AI- driven identity verification will be critical.”

Onfido has more than 500 staff and annual revenues of more than £102m. The company lost £70m in the year to January 2023, its latest accounts show, and was forced to pay tens of millions of pounds as part of a settlement in a class-action privacy lawsuit in the US.