Trustpilot Raises $73.5 Million

Trustpilot Raises $73.5 Million for Credible Reviews of Businesses Online

Trustpilot Inc. has raised $73.5 million in Series D funding to become the world’s dominant source of user-generated reviews of businesses online.

Unlike existing reviews sites that are popular in the U.S., such as TripAdvisor or Yelp, Trustpilot focuses on getting people to write about their recent customer experiences with online merchants and other companies they deal with primarily online, rather than reviewing restaurants, hotels and airlines or individual products.

Virtruvian Partners led the Series D round, joined by Trustpilot’s earlier backers, DFJ Esprit, Index Ventures, Northzone and SEED Capital Denmark. In total, Trustpilot has raised $118 million in venture funding to date.

The company’s founder and Chief Executive Peter Holten Mühlmann said Trustpilot has already published 13 million reviews about more than 100,000 brands. It generates revenue when merchants subscribe to use Trustpilot’s software-as-a-service to solicit reviews from recent customers, and to gain business insights from reviews in aggregate.

To make sure its reviews are credible–neither falsely flattering nor tearing down a particular company–Trustpilot uses a blend of technology and people to flag and eliminate possible phonies.

It also uses “sentiment analysis” to help companies quickly pinpoint areas for improvement and strengths they can trumpet in marketing or advertising campaigns.

Journalist – Lora Kolodny