> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # EP + Weekly: The Biggest UK Startup Stories This Week - URL: https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/ep-weekly-the-biggest-uk-startup-stories-this-week-9/ - Published: 2026-09-19T20:00:33.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-19T20:00:32.000Z - Description: Trustpilot lets consumers review businesses for free. The money comes from the companies on the other side, paying for subscriptions, analytics, integrations and data. Here's how that simple model grew into a $261 million revenue business. - Author: Sharoni Banerjee - Tags: Ecosystem Intel --- Two UK companies built entire businesses on proving other people trustworthy. One just got bought out, and the other just posted its best year ever. So here's the story. Onfido started with three Oxford students who got tired of waiting weeks for a background check. Husayn Kassai, Eamon Jubbawy and Ruhul Amin built a business that checks a government ID against a live selfie, proving someone is who they say they are, and banks and fintechs paid per check to use it. It scaled extremely quickly, as Onfido passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue back in 2021, and by the time it sold, revenue was north of $140 million a year, but for all that growth, profitability never quite arrived. For the year ending January 2023, Onfido reported £102 million in revenue against a £70 million operating loss. So it sold to Entrust, the US security giant, which bought Onfido in April 2024, reportedly for around $650 million. Oxford's Seed Fund had put in just £20,000 back in 2013\. That stake came back roughly 80 times over, reportedly the largest return the university's ever seen from a student-led company. Trustpilot took the other path entirely, it stayed public, kept building, and this week posted the kind of results that would have made Onfido's early backers very happy. Revenue is up 24%, to $261.1 million, and operating profit up 320%, to $16 million. It took years longer than Onfido's whole existence to get there, but it got there on its own terms, without ever needing to sell. Both of them were trusted businesses, but one cashed out before the profit ever showed up. One waited and found it on its own. Read the full breakdown of [*how Onfido makes money*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/how-onfido-makes-money-the-identity-verification-company-acquired-by-entrust/)*,* and [*how Trustpilot makes money*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/how-trustpilot-makes-money-inside-the-uk-listed-review-platform/). --- ## Also on EP+ this week: → Everyone knows the Gymshark story, but almost nobody tells the version with [*Ben Francis*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/the-ben-francis-gymshark-story-nobody-quite-tells/) actually in it, so we did. → There's one number [*founders pick for their own salary* ](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/startup-founder-salary-the-number-that-could-sink-your-startup/)early on that quietly decides whether the whole company survives its first two years. → [*UK gaming* ](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/uk-gaming-startups-2026-the-industry-is-booming-while-the-pipeline-breaks/)is booming by every headline metric, and the pipeline underneath it is breaking in ways almost nobody's talking about yet. → We went looking for the [*UK coworking spaces* ](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/best-uk-coworking-spaces-for-startups-in-2026/)actually worth paying for in 2026, not just the ones with the best Instagram. → [*UK edtech founders* ](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/uk-edtech-companies-now-bet-on-grants-before-venture-capital/)have quietly stopped chasing venture capital first, and started chasing grants instead. → [*Britain's maritime industry*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/what-the-uk-maritime-innovation-hub-reveals-about-britains-maritime-tech-bet/) doesn't get a fraction of the attention AI does, but the country just placed a real bet on it anyway. → [*Ten red flags investors*](https://entrepreneurplus.co.uk/due-diligence-red-flags-10-traps-investors-spot-fast/) spot in minutes during due diligence, the ones that kill a deal long before the term sheet gets close. --- ## The wider ecosystem was making very similar bets this week, at very different scales. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/05/a4/05a4a052-18ab-4836-8924-ec8b322c371c/content/images/2026/09/UK_ecosystem_intel-week-9.png) UK ecosystem capital flows Britain's biggest banks kicked off a £50 million fundraise for a new domestic payments utility, built with the Bank of England and the Treasury. Nineteen organisations have already signed on, including the UK's four biggest high street banks, Citi, JPMorgan Chase and PayPal. It won't be finished until 2028 at the earliest. Ryft, the Manchester payments company, raised £20 million this week. Largest UK payments Series B of the year. It landed against a brutal backdrop: UK fintech investment fell to £1.8 billion in the first half of 2026, the lowest in a decade, down from £5 billion the year before. Ryft raised money while most of its sector couldn't. Open Cosmos, the British satellite manufacturer, raised €300 million and crossed $1 billion in valuation. Europe's newest space unicorn. Infrastructure that only pays off over years. Closer to home, the British Business Bank pushed its total backing for Haatch up to £62 million, with over 70% going to companies outside London. And the UK economy grew 0.4% in July, small, but real, in a year growth has been hard to find. --- ## One pattern we noticed Onfido built something genuinely valuable and cashed out before the profit ever showed up. Trustpilot built something just as valuable and waited years longer to see the same thing happen on its own terms. Open Cosmos is years away from knowing which version of that story it's living. None of these companies got there quickly, and none of them got there for free. The only real difference this week was patience, and who could afford to have it. --- ## One number **80** \- the return multiple Oxford's Seed Fund made on its original £20,000 investment in Onfido, reportedly the largest return the university has ever seen from a student-led company. --- ## Question of the week What's harder for a founder: *knowing when to sell or knowing when to wait?* Email us at ***editorial@entrepreneurplus.co.uk*** and tell us which, and why we read every single answer, and yours might end up in next week's brief. --- **Sources:* Onfido figures from Onfido and Entrust press releases (2021–2024), Reuters reporting on Companies House filings, and University of Oxford Saïd Business School reporting on the 2024 sale. Trustpilot figures from Trustpilot Group's FY2025 results, via Reuters and Proactive Investors. Open Cosmos figures from SpaceNews and Computer Weekly. British Business Bank/Haatch figures from IFA Magazine and the British Business Bank's own press releases. UK GDP figure from Reuters.*