A Google exec just jumped ship to join an identity-checking startup founded by three 20-somethings
Three-year-old Onfido has named Ed Ungar as COO. Ungar is Google's former head of channel partnerships in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia.
In that role, Ungar headed Google's efforts to sell AdWords to small businesses through a network of partners. He has also worked at The Financial Times and Goldman Sachs - quite a pedigree.
Onfido raised $4.5 million (£2.9 million) back in February from investors including Lastminute.com co-founder Brent Hoberman and Wellington Partners, which has funded the likes of Spotify and Zopa.
Ungar told Business Insider: "I came across [Onfido] through a longtime connection I had with Wellington, Onfido's venture capital backers. They were very keen to put me in touch and it went from there.
"My brief is really sales and marketing, but it's also to do with how we scale and build out Onfido, and take it to different markets."
Onfido opened a US office in San Francisco in the summer and Husayn Kassai, Onfido's co-founder and CEO, says international expansion is high on the agenda.
Kassai told Business Insider: "We operate nationally as a data aggregator. There are almost 35 countries where the data infrastructure is strong enough for us to process our checks. Predominantly they're western Europe, the US, and Australia."
"Background checks have two components. One is identity check, essentially verifying you are who you say you are. The other part is databases, they include credit reference agencies, criminal record bureaus, government resources. There are 14 plus points we plug into in the UK."
Onfido's technology allows companies to carry out remote background checks and is used by everyone from upmarket Airbnb rival Onefinestay and on-demand cleaning business Handy, to Germany software giant SAP and recruiter Hays.
Kassai, 25, and his two co-founders, Eamon Jubbawy, 23, and Ruhul Amin, 27, all worked in background checking in the City before setting up the company.
Kassai says: "We were working in the City at banks, we were background checking ourselves. It was a slow and manual process. We felt technology could be used to automated it a lot more and make it a lot more effective and efficient."