Onfido, an AI-powered identity verification and authentication company, has partnered with popular online food delivery service Deliveroo to provide identity verification services for their rider onboarding process.

The Need for Digital Service Apps During COVID-19

With the COVID-19 pandemic impacting restaurants around the world, delivery services have never been more crucial. “Since we started Deliveroo, there’s been this incredible adoption towards online and apps. But I think COVID-19 has brought forward this consumer behaviour by about one to three years,” said Deliveroo Co-Founder and CEO Will Shu in an interview with BBC News.

Deliveroo works with over 80,000 restaurants and 60,000 riders primarily in the United Kingdom and Australia. With most people locked down at home under quarantine, ordering food online has become a primary method of getting meals from their favorite restaurants. A study by Axios showed that more people have been ordering food delivery since the COVID-19 outbreak, increasing from 19% to 22% during two consecutive weeks in April, highlighting the consumer dependence on food service applications, especially for young adults and parents.

Husayn Kassai, CEO and Co-Founder of Onfido, speaks to the importance of supporting the increased volume of orders at restaurants: “The ability for Deliveroo to meet the demand of its restaurant partners will play a critical role in the sustainability of many restaurants on our high streets over the coming months. We’re delighted to partner with Deliveroo to meet these demands across the world, providing a secure, user-friendly service that helps them quickly onboard new riders.”

Food delivery has not only been a lifeline for restaurants, though. Riders, who deliver the food from restaurants to customers’ doorsteps, are grateful for the business during a time of enormous economic uncertainty. The food service industry was one of the hardest hit from the pandemic, with six million jobs lost since March.

Digital Identity Verification Trends

Onfido’s AI technology uses facial biometrics to ensure that a user’s face matches the provided identification document they upload. They’ve made strides in automating the identity verification process—an often inefficient process that used to require manual inspection—and now have support for authenticating over 4,500 identification document types in 195 countries.

Streamlining the identity verification process not only saves Deliveroo time and money, but also adds an extra layer of security for the business and its customers.

ABOUT THE WRITER:

Lydia You is a computer scientist from Princeton University living in New York City. She is a Tech Innovation Fellow at Identity Review covering the intersection of technology, internet culture and the future of digital media.