Fintech
Cork fintech Trustap raises $5.5 million led by TX Ventures
Founded by Conor Lyden in 2017, the former startup of the week aims to become the market leader in trusted transactions worldwide.
Irish fintech Trustap has raised $5.5 million in a Series A funding round led by TX Ventures.
In an announcement today (July 9), the Cork startup founded by Conor Lyden said its latest round was also supported by new investors SeedX, Resolute Partners and Aperture. Other existing backers include MiddleGame Ventures, Act VC, Atlantic Bridge and FurthrVC.
Trustap has developed a marketplace transaction platform that aims to give buyers and sellers confidence when making a transaction online or in person with someone they don’t know, through an escrow-style payment.
Lyden developed the initial concept for Trustap while studying at University College Cork. He went on to participate in the university’s graduate business incubator, Ignite, and officially founded the company in 2017.
The former SiliconRepublic.com Startup of the week has clients in Europe, Asia and the United States. Notable clients include Mudah in Malaysia, Preloved in the United Kingdom and Student Seats in the United States.
Through partnerships in 27 countries, Trustap captures a wide range of products bought and sold in these marketplaces, from electronics to tickets, luxury goods to vehicles.
“We are pleased to have closed this round and it is great to have added new investors to our capital, who bring with them extensive experience in our core markets,” said Lyden.
“Our plan is to invest in our GTM [go-to-market] to ensure we are making the most of some of the recent partnerships we have established. We will also be looking at adding additional product features to meet the wide range of use cases we are dealing with both in C2C [customer-to-customer] and B2B [business-to-business] markets.”
Reliability raised $3.4 million in a seed funding round led by MiddleGame Ventures in April 2022. The round was backed by Act VC and Atlantic Bridge, and followed seed funding from early backers like Liam Casey, who was also an early investor in Stripe.
Krzysztof Bialkowski, managing partner at TX Ventures, said that marketplaces will need to offer reliable payment solutions “in the near medium term” to avoid missing out on new business opportunities.
“Trustap does just that by offering escrow-like payment options and taking the operational burden off marketplaces. The product is immensely scalable, as evidenced by the global customer footprint and the many categories Trustap facilitates between buyers and sellers.”
Just last week, Trustap struck a multi-marketplace deal with an undisclosed apparel marketplace, adding five more Central and Eastern European countries to its customer base.
The startup also recently appointed Ovidiu Solomonov, former chief operating officer of European markets at online ad group Adevinta, as chairman of its board of directors.
“We have ambitious plans to become the market leader in trusted transactions worldwide, ensuring that all users on Trustap-powered marketplaces can transact safely and efficiently,” Lyden added.
“Our initial goal is to continue to work with marketplaces that have the largest market share in the geographies we support, while aiming to satisfy the longer tail of the market in the medium term.”
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