Digital has reshaped the commerce landscape and introduced a new set of KPIs and metrics to manage and monitor in order to scale effectively. The direct brand economy cultivates a relationship with consumers, driven primarily through digital footprints without any middlemen. Managing distribution, cash flow, and operations are critical for emerging brands to ensure positive customer experiences. Trust is a dedicated network and financing solution for digitally-native brands to access industry-specific analytics as well as extended payment terms. The embedded network provides a sounding board for emerging brands as well as curated resources that are highly relevant to a brand’s focus in addition to anonymized spend analytics derived from 650K+ transactions. Through the firm’s virtual card and spend solution, brands have flexible access to capital for ads, software, or inventory for 45 days. The entire platform is currently 100% free for businesses with Trust earning the interchange fee from spending on its virtual card. With large brands and platforms dominating the ad spend universe, Trust is leveling the playing field by providing access to real-world performance data at scale for digital brands that are navigating their growth journey.
LA TechWatch caught up with Trust CEO James Borow to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, latest round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Trust closed $30 million in new funding, including $25 million in debt from Upper90 and $5 million in equity from existing and new investors, including Sapphire Sport and Michael Vaughan (Venmo’s former COO). Trust has raised $14 million to date in equity and is backed by Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Manta Ray, Sapphire Sport, Upfront Ventures, and Upper90.
Tell us about your product or service.
Trust is the growth network for emerging brands, helping businesses grow smarter and faster together. Brands that join the Trust network can band together to get benchmarked KPIs, trusted insights, and extended payment terms for their growth investments. 100% free.
What inspired the start of Trust?
Back in 2015, when the founders of Trust were building Snap’s advertising platform, they got a close look at the advantages larger companies had when leveraging various social media platforms, e.g., better access to information, support, and financial terms to grow. They also got to see how smaller emerging brands were left to go at it alone, which made it hard for them to level up.
That’s why they built Trust – to help emerging brands gain equal footing by banding together via a network that allows them to safely share and access impactful data, insights, content, and buying power.
How is it different?
No other company besides Trust is developing the network and interactive platform that gives emerging brands access to curated news, real-time performance data, community insights, and extended payment terms to help them better invest in their growth.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Our target customers are US-based emerging brands who have found success with their consumers and are continuing to grow their business. This includes brands doing upwards of $15M of annual revenue (many are much smaller), are operating efficiently with a small team of fewer than 20, drive most of their sales direct-to-consumer, and rely heavily on ad platforms and other online services.
While this description may seem very specific, this is a massive market of more than 600,000 businesses controlling more than $200B in annual GMV. This is a group that, if they band together through a network like Trust, could flip the traditional vendor power dynamic.
What’s your business model?
Every time businesses use their Trust card, we receive an interchange fee. That fee is paid by the vendors, which makes Trust a free product for businesses to use. There is no fee to sign up, there are no minimums, and having a Trust card account is not a requirement to join the network.
In addition to our interchange revenue, Trust will introduce new products in the future that create additional revenue streams.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
Buying power across the Trust network currently exceeds $100 million. Since August, brands on Trust have shared over 650,000 anonymized transactions with each other. With this new funding, we are able to considerably scale the network, bring even more customers into the platform, and increase our members’ buying power across the network.
What’s your favorite outdoor activity in LA?
I love taking walks, going on hikes, and exploring LA with my wife, daughters, and our dog. My family and I love Los Angeles; there’s nowhere we’d rather be.
