After seeing revenue grow fivefold in the past year, London-based Onfido Ltd. has secured a fresh capital infusion to keep expanding.

The identity verification startup today announced the completion of a $30 million funding round that included contributions from Microsoft Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. They were joined by a Europe-focused fund called Crane Venture Partners, which led the round. The consortium is betting that Onfido can fill a major gap in the online business landscape.

Companies are handling more and more day-to-day activities via the web, including sensitive tasks governed by strict regulations. One legal requirement that can be particularly tricky to meet in the digital era is performing identify verification. Opening a bank account, for example, often still requires visiting a branch to present an ID in person. 

Onfido offers a platform that allows users to verify they are who they claim to be using a mobile device. To start, a consumer has to upload a picture of an official ID. Onfido checks that the document is authentic and asks the owner to perform a secondary verification via their smartphone camera.

The process requires the user to read text displayed on the screen, wink or perform some other simple task specified by the platform in front of the lens. According to Onfido, machine learning algorithms running behind the scenes analyze the video to verify that the person performing the action is the same one who appears on the ID. It’s more reliable than asking the user to simply take a selfie, an approach that can potentially be defeated by holding a photo to the camera.

Onfido boasts over 1,500 clients including Square Inc., Uber Technologies Inc. and a good number of financial institutions. The startup will use the capital to target customers in international markets, an effort that will see more resources put aside for product development.

Onfido has raised over $60 million in funding to date.

Image: Onfido