News

By Amy-Jo Crowley and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro

LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) - British technology group Onfido is in advanced talks to sell itself to U.S.-based Entrust Corp, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

Onfido, which uses artificial intelligence to verify customer identities, could be valued around $650 million in a deal, one of the people said.

If reached, an agreement could be announced imminently, the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.

"We're excited to be entering into early and exclusive discussions for Onfido to be acquired by Entrust, a global leader in trusted payments, identities, and data security," Onfido said in a statement. "We aren't able to comment further until these discussions are finalized, subject to regulatory approval and local law.”

Entrust Corp, formerly known as Entrust Datacard, offers identify verification and security solutions for industries such as payments and healthcare.

It has previously been acquisitive, buying Netherlands-based Evidos in 2022.

The discussions between the two companies come 12 years after Onfido was launched by founders Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy, and Ruhul Amin.

The British company has several external backers including Salesforce's CRM.N venture capital arm and private equity groups Bain Capital and TPG TPG.O, according to public filings.

Onfido posted an increase in revenue for the year ended Jan. 31, 2023 to 102 million pounds and an operating loss of 70 million pounds, according to accounts filed at Companies House.

(Reporting by Amy-Jo Crowley and Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro in London; Editing by Anousha Sakoui, David Evans and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

((Pablo.MayoCerqueiro@thomsonreuters.com;))

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