Trustly
Founded: 2008
Products: Online banking payments, refunds and data services
Overview: Founded in 2008, Trustly is a provider of online banking payment services. It enables merchants to take payments directly from their customers’ online bank accounts, with consent. It says its digital account-to-account platform offers speed, simplicity and security of payments. Trustly is able to handle the entire payment journey. This presents a lower-cost alternative to the traditional card networks. Today it serves 8,100 merchants, connecting them with 525 million consumers and 6,300 banks in more than 30 countries. In 2020 its global network processed -in excess of $21bn in transaction volumes.
Trustly has more than 500 employees across Europe, North America and Latin America. It is a licensed Payment Institution under the second payment services directive (PSD2) and operates under the supervision of the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority in Europe. In the US, it is state regulated as required to serve its target markets.
Financially solid, in 2021 it reported record Q1 overall revenues, increasing 46% year-on-year to SEK632m ($75m), with adjusted EBITDA rising 31% to Skr275m ($32m). Its North America region revenues (accounting for 26% of all revenues) were 609% up year-on-year.
Clients: Alibaba, Dell, Draft Kings, GoFundMe, PayPal, Wise, Unicef and more
Active region(s): Europe, US, Canada, Australia
Partners: Adyen, Worldpay, Ingenico, PPRO, Worldline and more
Employees: 500+
With some major clients on board, this platform provider has leveraged early-mover advantage, making significant inroads into this very busy space.
Funding: Funded by a number of investors, with Investment Corporation of Dubai, BlackRock Private Equity Partners and Aberdeen Standard Investments being the most recent in a June 2020 Venture round.
Ownership: Private
Elevator pitch: “Today’s payment landscape is highly complex and fragmented, with many local payments schemes and several large global solutions that have high consumer friction and merchant fees. Our account-to-account solution bypasses the traditional card-based payments value chain providing merchants with lower fees and reduced transaction costs, sometimes up to 50% cheaper than cards. At the same time, we deliver enhanced transparency and a more convenient consumer experience, without any hidden fees. As a purely debit payment method, Trustly is a sustainable way to pay that doesn’t contribute to increased consumer indebtedness in society.”
Website: trustly.net
Email:[email protected]
TMI view: A well-funded platform that enables account-to-account payments, cutting out the intermediaries and still offering transaction data. With some major clients on board, this platform provider has leveraged early-mover advantage, making significant inroads into this very busy space.
Verdict: A card-free e-commerce solution that brings something different to the growing list of payments options.