LONDON, August 2, 2016 /PRNewswire/ --

• Total funding to date now totals £13.7 million
• TruRating is now live, capturing real time ratings from customers in Australia and the UK, with Canada and US to launch later this year
• First 2 million ratings already achieved and ratings growth is outpacing incumbents in the online consumer ratings sector

TruRating is excited to announce that it has raised £9.5 million in Series A, funding. This takes the total amount raised by founder Georgina Nelson since 2014 to £13.7 million (approx. US$ 20 million).

TruRating is the world's brand new mass-market ratings system and offers an alternative model to Trip Advisor 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.  Retailers 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, providing merchants with a mass market view of service and value performance across the company. 

Earlier this year TruRating hit the first landmark 1 million ratings, and just seven months later has already doubled this to hit 2 million. 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 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, through to large merchants like Arco. Pilots are also underway in both markets with major brand names.

Later this year, TruRating will go live in North America, with its first payment partners, and a number of merchants.

Georgina Nelson, Founder and CEO of TruRating, explains how important the investment is: "Our aim is to bring honesty and transparency back to consumer ratings globally. We have had an incredible year, building a world class service with our partners and customers. Securing this funding will help us take TruRating to the next level.

"There's a 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 more 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 & 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.

Notes to editors:  

The previous funding came from Angel investment of £1.5 million in 2014 and seed funding of £2.7 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, their customers range from the largest global retailers right down to your local restaurant or bookshop. They are 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.

SOURCE TruRating