Identity verification provider Onfido has been joined by FinTech companies Monese, Seedrs, Curve and B-Social in a sandbox run by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
Onfido became part of the FCA’s fifth sandbox cohort in April. Together with partners Deloitte, the accountancy firm, and Evernym, the decentralized identity company, the scaleup set out to test how verified identities could be carried across to new online companies.
The idea is that this would make it easier for customers to access services without having to jump through the same identity-verification hoops every time. But it could also help businesses cut down on compliancy costs and enable them to onboard new customers on scale, according to Onfido.
“We are thrilled that Monese, Seedrs, Curve and B-Social are leading the way on demonstrating the need for this kind of progressive, customer-centric and privacy-first solution,” Onfido said in a statement. “By participating in the sandbox pilot, we hope to show policy makers and regulators that fixing identity is critical to the UK and to global society, that the tech is ready and that the time is now.”
This is not the only regulatory sandbox Onfido has joined this year. The British Information Commissioner’s Office runs the another one, which Onfido joined at the end of July. In that one, the UK scaleup is researching how to identify and mitigate algorithmic bias in machine learning models used for remote biometric-based identity verification.
Monese is the current mobile account FinTech company that secured $60m in its Series B in September 2018.
Seedrs is a crowdfunding platform that has helped companies like PayRue, Feral Horses and Assetz raise money.
Curve is an online banking platform that is launching a crowdfunding campaign in September after closing a $55m Series B round in July.
B-Social is an app enabling small groups of friends to better keep track of their common expenses.
Copyright © 2018 RegTech Analyst
