Young Cork business Trustap brings confidence and security to online transactions.
End-to-end digital transaction platform Trustap has raised $3.4m in seed funding.
The round was led by MiddleGame Ventures with co-investment from Act and Atlantic Bridge, and follows on the heels of initial backers including early Stripe investor Liam Casey.
“This fundraise is an important step for Trustap and will enable us to leverage the network and experience of our investor base to accelerate our growth in 2022 and beyond”
The funding will enable Trustap to accelerate its mission to provide buyers and sellers with peace of mind when engaging in an online or face-to-face transaction.
Bringing trust into e-commerce
Despite the significant growth in online commerce platforms, peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions continue to be plagued by lack of trust between buyers and sellers, resulting in over $220bn of inhibited transactions annually.
Fuelled by the continued decline in cash usage post-Covid and the accelerated shift towards e-commerce and digital payments, the market opportunity is growing at over 15% annually. Buyers remain reluctant to transact with sellers unknown to them, therefore preventing successful transactions.
Trustap provides the critical remedy in the form of a transparent and secure milestone-based transaction platform for both buyers and sellers.
“This fundraise is an important step for Trustap and will enable us to leverage the network and experience of our investor base to accelerate our growth in 2022 and beyond,” said Trustap founder and CEO Conor Lyden.
“Most people will be familiar with the concept of Escrow; a third-party holding funds on behalf of two other parties. We believe more than Escrow is required for a successful transaction between two unknown parties. The reality is that the money is only ever half of any transaction between two parties. The other half is usually a product that has to be delivered or a service that has to be completed. Rather than just holding the money, we manage the entire transaction from start to finish to ensure each milestone is successfully completed.”
2021 saw Trustap successfully partner with a number of large marketplaces around the world, securing agreements with global names such as Preloved and Mudah, the largest marketplace in Malaysia. The partnership with Preloved unlocks access to one of the latest classified advertising sites in the UK across 500+ categories. This new injection of funding will enable Trustap to accelerate its growth with the roll out of new features and extend marketplace partnerships globally to meet increasing customer demand.
“We are excited to partner with Conor and his team to support Trustap’s growth ambitions”, noted Patrick Pinschmidt, co-founder and general partner at MiddleGame Ventures.
“The company is well positioned to play an integral role in unlocking friction around marketplace transactions by providing confidence to both sellers and buyers. In competitive online markets with thin margins, the Trustap platform differentiates itself by reducing the incidence of abandoned transactions and offering revenue opportunities from successful transactions, as well as better data tools for business customers.”
Main image at top: Trustap founder and CEO Conor Lyden
