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

08 Ago 2016, 00:00 AM CDT

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–(BUSINESS WIRE)–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