TruRating Closes $12.6 Million Funding Round to Fuel Its Disruption of the Global Consumer Ratings Market

  • Funding to date now totals $20 million
  • First 2 million ratings already achieved, and ratings growth is outpacing incumbents in the online consumer ratings sector

ATLANTA--()--TruRating is excited to announce it has raised $12.6 million in Series A funding. This takes the total amount raised by founder Georgina Nelson since 2014 to $20 million.

TruRating, a new mass-market ratings system, offers an alternative model to TripAdvisor and Yelp! by giving retailers and restaurants the peace of mind that the feedback they receive is from a genuine paying customer.

The idea is simple. Everyone who uses the payment terminal to pay is asked to rate one of five questions related to service, value, product, experience, and likelihood to recommend the brand, on a scale of 0-9. Merchants are given the feedback in real time so they can assess service levels and make adjustments and improvements. 9 out of 10 people asked to rate when they pay do so, providing merchants with a mass-market view of service and value performance across the company.

Earlier this year, TruRating hit its first landmark with 1 million ratings; just a few months later, it has doubled that. In time, this information will be made available to consumers online, making it easy to compare ratings and make an informed choice about where to shop and eat.

TruRating is already live in the UK and Australia, working with numerous small independent retailers and restaurants; fast-growing restaurant chains, such as Ping Pong and Franco Manca; and large merchants like Arco. Pilots are also under way in both markets with major global brands; to be announced later this year.

TruRating is enabled on the merchant’s existing payment terminal via their partnerships with the world’s largest payment businesses. These include global terminal hardware providers Verifone and Ingenico and a host of key processing banks and payment service providers across North America, Europe and Australia.

The business has made Atlanta its home in the US market. This decision was driven by the proximity of many of the key payment businesses, but its aspirations are very much national and Atlanta’s flight network was another factor enabling TruRating to connect with retail and hospitality brands across the country ahead of go-live in the Fall.

Georgina Nelson, Founder and CEO, explains TruRating's aspirations for growth in the American market: “We have already had a fantastic response to TruRating in the US and are working across the payments sector to enable businesses of all sizes and types to access ground breaking insights. Our partners are enjoying being able to provide a value added service that gets to the heart of helping businesses improve. This reflects the huge appetite among businesses to get validated, real-time ratings from the majority of their customers. Now 88% of people asked to rate do. It’s such an easy way for consumers to have their say and be listened to, and for merchants to respond and improve.”

Looking ahead, Georgina adds, "We will be announcing more payment partnerships in the coming months. These will allow us to open up TruRating to even more merchants and, as a result, some very big household names will be working with us by the end of the year, adding millions of ratings every day.”

This round of funding was led by Sandaire, an international investment office for families and foundations, and a private family investment group. Early rounds of seed funding included investment from angels Peter Ayliffe, former President and CEO Visa Europe and now Chairman of TruRating; Anthony Gutman, Co-head, European Investment Banking Services at Goldman Sachs International; and Chris Blundell, Global Head of Technology at Brunswick Group.

TruRating was recently named a Gartner 2016 Cool Vendor and has won numerous awards for innovation, including The Cards and Payment Awards 2016, Future 50, and Ingenico Group Best Application 2015.

Note to editors:

The previous funding came from angel investment of $1.6 million in 2014 and seed funding of $3 million in 2015.

About TruRating

TruRating is on a mission to bring the truth back to customer ratings. Its innovative feedback solution is set to affect the lives of millions the world over, changing the way that businesses, and consumers, think. How? TruRating takes the pulse of consumer sentiment via the payment terminal—asking each customer to anonymously rate an aspect of their experience on the keypad from 0-9. Using hardware that’s already sitting in shops and restaurants around the globe, and that customers already interact with right at the point of payment, TruRating is making it easier than ever for every consumer to have a say. As a result, on average, 88% of us are rating when asked a question. For the first time, businesses are benefiting from mass, validated, representative feedback daily.

TruRating is a global, rapidly scaling tech startup with multi-award winning, game-changing, patented-applied-for technology. Working with the biggest payment companies in the world, its customers range from the largest global retailers to local restaurants and bookshops. It is already collecting millions of ratings across Australia and the UK, with Canada and the US going live in the second half of 2016. In time, these validated ratings will be available online, so that consumers can directly and reliably compare brands against one another to make decisions on where to eat and shop.

Contacts

TruRating
James McDeermond, 770-617-2061
james.mcdeermond@trurating.com
or
Media Frenzy Global for TruRating
Marie Bernadeau, 404-399-6731
marie@mediafrenzyglobal.com

Release Summary

TruRating closes $12.6 Million funding round to fuel its disruption of the global consumer ratings market.

Contacts

TruRating
James McDeermond, 770-617-2061
james.mcdeermond@trurating.com
or
Media Frenzy Global for TruRating
Marie Bernadeau, 404-399-6731
marie@mediafrenzyglobal.com