A London company founded in 2017 that helps people prove who they are and where money comes from when buying a home or doing other legal work.
Thirdfort is a UK company that makes the checks lawyers and estate agents must do before big money moves much quicker. When someone buys a house, their lawyer has to confirm who they are and where the money comes from, to stop fraud and money laundering (hiding illegally earned cash). Thirdfort puts this on a phone app: you photograph your ID, take a short video of yourself, and can share your bank details securely through open banking, which lets you give a company permission to see your bank statements. The lawyer gets the result without piles of paperwork. Its own site lists ID verification, document verification, checks against lists of politically exposed people and sanctions, source of funds checks, and checks on businesses.
Thirdfort's own about page says it was founded in 2018 by two school friends, Olly Thornton-Berry and Jack Bidgood. (An earlier roundup we read said 2017, so we use the company's own date.) Legal Futures reported that Thornton-Berry, the managing director, had worked in private equity and Bidgood in banking. The idea came after a friend lost £25,000 while buying a home, tricked by a fraudster posing as a lawyer after an email account was hacked. The company has a registered office in London and, according to its careers page, offices near Borough Market in London and in Manchester's Northern Quarter. Its about page also mentions a development office in Sri Lanka, opened in December 2019. A jobs-site profile lists 116 employees, so it is still a fairly small company.
Thirdfort states its mission plainly: 'We're on a mission to protect society from fraud and money laundering.' Its five values are Build on Trust, Win Together, Own it, Create Clarity, and Move Fast and Make Things. In an early interview Thornton-Berry said 'We want it to be a new standard in the legal industry.'
The company says over 1,500 businesses use it, mainly in legal, conveyancing (the legal work of buying and selling property), estate agency and accountancy. That is its own claim. An August 2020 report said it then worked with 450 law firms, including Mishcon de Reya, Boodle Hatfield and Penningtons. Other products on its site are Secure Share, which lets estate agents and conveyancers share ID and anti-money-laundering reports, and a Client Due Diligence platform launched in October 2025. It has also partnered with software providers such as Redbrick, Reapit and Advanced, so its checks can be used inside the systems firms already use.
On culture, Thirdfort describes itself as fun and driven and says it likes people who are ambitious, courageous and happy to think differently. Its careers page says values shape hiring, every employee writes a personal mission document, and there are weekly All Hands meetings, a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) committee and twice-yearly awards for people who live the values. Roles are listed as hybrid or fully remote, with unlimited annual leave (minimum 25 days), private health insurance and a professional development budget. These are the company's own claims. For early careers, a graduate client services associate role was advertised for a January 2026 start on a jobs site, but we found no apprenticeship or school-leaver scheme, so check its jobs page for what is open now.
Website: thirdfort.com
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