Trustpilot Closes $73.5 Million Series D Round, Becomes the Standard for Trust Online
28 May 2015 - 3:00PM
Business Wire
Online review business will focus on continuing
rapid global growth
Trustpilot, the leading review community for global online
shoppers, today announced that it raised $73.5 million in a Series
D investment round. The round was led by the private equity firm
Vitruvian Partners. Previous investors DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures,
Northzone and Seed Capital Denmark also contributed significantly
to this round.
Trustpilot will use this funding to continue its rapid growth in
North America and globally, investing even more in the processes,
people and technology to help strengthen its leading position as
the online standard for brands that want to increase trust,
transparency and customer success. Trustpilot provides verified,
third-party reviews via an open community where consumers can share
their brand experiences, which is a process that drives purchasing
decisions today. The Series D investment round follows a milestone
year of 80 percent growth for Trustpilot and brings total
investments in the company to $118.5 million.
Feedback collected through the Trustpilot platform enables
leading brands such as B&H Photo, Dental Plans, JustFab,
Rosetta Stone, SelectQuote, Silver Star Brands and Uship
to not only increase customer retention, individually tailor
customer experiences and prove marketing return on investment
(ROI), but also to make informed decisions about service and
product development and rally sales, marketing and customer
experience teams.
“Every day more than 10,000 consumers sign up for a Trustpilot
account, demonstrating the growing global trend that a brand is no
longer what the company says it is; it’s what the customers say it
is,” said Trustpilot Founder and CEO Peter Holten Mühlmann.
“Trustpilot is at the forefront of this trend, and we will use this
round of funding to invest in teams and technology that enable us
to amplify our position as the online standard for trust.”
Boasting a customer retention rate of 95 percent, Trustpilot,
which is now home to 13 million reviews for more than 100,000
brands, has quickly become the standard for company reviews online.
To ensure that it continues to meet its high standards of trust and
transparency, Trustpilot has a team of 30 people working around the
clock to make sure reviews comply with guidelines and to combat
fraudulent behavior on the platform. Trustpilot’s Series D
announcement is one of the highest amounts of investment generated
in the history of Denmark, which ranked No. 1 out of 146 countries
on Forbes’ list of Best Countries for Business.
Commenting on the deal, Vitruvian Partner Ben Johnson said,
“Consumers increasingly recognize that peer-to-peer reviews have
become essential resources. There is a huge global market
opportunity for online reviews based on the desire of customers
around the world to find trusted sources of recommendations in
every category. Trustpilot is a technology leader and pioneer in
this area, and its opportunity is to reach customers in new markets
and to continue extending the benefits of online reviews to new
global brands.” Johnson will join the board of directors at
Trustpilot.
About TrustpilotFounded in 2007 by CEO Peter Holten
Mühlmann, Trustpilot is a global, multi-language, open review
community that builds trust and transparency between consumers and
businesses. Boasting more than 13 million consumer reviews of
100,000 businesses, Trustpilot produces a TrustScore for businesses
based on recent reviews. Every day, more than 10,000 consumers sign
up on Trustpilot.com, and every month, 500,000 new reviews are
posted on the community.
Trustpilot has customers in 65 countries and has developed
strong positions in Denmark, Sweden, the U.K., France, Italy,
Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in the U.S. The company is
headquartered in New York, London, Copenhagen and Melbourne, and
its employee base has increased from 168 people in 2013 to its
current count of more than 400 employees representing 40
nationalities. Trustpilot was selected as one of Crain’s 2014 Best
Places to Work in New York City.
https://www.trustpilot.com for
reviewershttp://business.trustpilot.com for businesses
About Vitruvian Partners LLPVitruvian Partners LLP
(“Vitruvian”) is an independent private equity firm which
specializes in middle market buyouts, growth buyouts and growth
capital investments in the United Kingdom and Northern Europe.
Vitruvian focuses on investing in ‘dynamic situations’ in
industries characterized by growth and change, such as business
services, technology/internet, media, telecoms, financial services,
healthcare and consumer services. In December 2013, Vitruvian
announced that it had closed the fundraising of its second fund,
Vitruvian Investment Partnership II (“VIP II”), at its self-imposed
cap of £1 billion ($1.6 billion; €1.2billion). Vitruvian has
offices in London, Munich and Stockholm. In 2012, Vitruvian led the
$64 million funding round in Danish-founded Just Eat; in 2014
Vitruvian also led the $66 million Series D funding round in
Farfetch, which was valued at $1 billion in its subsequent Series E
funding round earlier this year.
View source
version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150527006708/en/
Metis Communications for Trustpilot:Megan Lieberman,
617-236-0500trustpilot@metiscomm.com