Trustap raises €3.1m in seed funding to accelerate growth

Cork-based payments company Trustap has raised $3.4 million (€3.1 million) in seed funding to accelerate its growth.

This is the largest fundraise for the company, which aims to tackle the lack of trust between buyers and sellers in peer-to-peer transactions.

The round is being led by MiddleGame Ventures with co-investment from Act and Atlantic Bridge. Early backers of the company include entrepreneur Liam Casey.

“The funding will give us the ability to bring in more resources on the technical side,” said chief executive and founder Conor Lyden. “That’s one thing that has been a big focus for us, hiring more developers, and also build out our sales team, particularly in the US.”

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The money will also be used for marketing and expanding into new markets, and roll out new features.

The Cork-headquartered company currently employs 33 people, and has offices in Croatia, the UK and the United States. More than 20 employees are based in Ireland, and Mr Lyden said he expected to see the team in Ireland grow again with this new round of funding.

Trustap, which provides an end-to-end digital transaction platform, aims to give buyers and sellers peace of mind for transactions, both online and face to face.

Transaction tracking

Buyers can track the transaction across each step of the journey with funds held securely and not released until the milestones are complete, with sellers getting transparency over where funds are being sent, verification of the buyer’s identity and options to collect and ship items.

“With companies like PayPal or other ways of paying someone, they only ever deal with the money,” said Mr Lyden.

“That relies on the buyer, etc, in a transaction saying they are happy and the company will release the money. We run all our transactions in a milestone-based way so it doesn’t give power to the buyer or seller to say they didn’t get something, or something didn’t happen, because we are managing the rest of the transaction.”

The pandemic has boosted the company’s business, with rapid take-up of its services in the past 12 months. It is now live in more than 40 countries.

The company agreed a number of partnerships with large marketplaces around the world, including deals with Preloved in the UK and Malaysian marketplace Mudah.