Trustly Group is a
Swedish
Swedish or ' may refer to:
Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically:
* Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland
** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...
fintech
Fintech, a portmanteau of "financial technology", refers to firms using new technology to compete with traditional financial methods in the delivery of financial services. Artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data are r ...
company founded in 2008. Trustly is an
open banking
Open banking is a financial services term within financial technology. It refers to:
#The use of open APIs that enable third-party developers to build applications and services around the financial institution.
#Greater financial transparency op ...
payment method that allows customers to shop and pay from their online bank account, without the use of a card or app. Its account-to-account network supports 6,300 banks, reaching 525 million consumers and bypassing the card networks.
Trustly provides its service to
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
and
TransferWise
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011.
History
Wise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) and fi ...
, among other companies.
Trustly is used by more than 8,000 merchants including
PayPal
PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American multinational financial technology company operating an online payments system in the majority of countries that support online money transfers, and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper ...
,
Alibaba
Ali Baba (character), Ali Baba is a character from the folk tale ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves''.
Ali Baba or Alibaba may also refer to:
Films
* Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1902 film), ''Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves'' (1902 film), a F ...
,
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
,
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
,
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
,
Unicef
UNICEF (), originally called the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund in full, now officially United Nations Children's Fund, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Devel ...
,
Dell
Dell is an American based technology company. It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services. Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies.
Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data ...
,
Lyft
Lyft, Inc. offers mobility as a service, ride-hailing, vehicles for hire, motorized scooters, a bicycle-sharing system, rental cars, and food delivery in the United States and select cities in Canada. Lyft sets fares, which vary using a dynamic ...
,
GoFundMe
GoFundMe is an American for-profit crowdfunding platform that allows people to raise money for events ranging from life events such as celebrations and graduations to challenging circumstances like accidents and illnesses. From 2010 to the b ...
,
TransferWise
Wise (formerly TransferWise) is a London-based financial technology company founded by Estonian businessmen Kristo Käärmann and Taavet Hinrikus in January 2011.
History
Wise was founded by Taavet Hinrikus (Skype's first employee) and fi ...
,
DraftKings
DraftKings is an American daily fantasy sports contest and sports betting company. The company allows users to enter daily and weekly fantasy sports–related contests and win money based on individual player performances in five major American ...
, and
eToro
eToro is an Israeli social trading and multi-asset Investment management, investment company that focuses on providing Financial trading, financial and copy trading services. Its headquarters are located in Central District (Israel), Central I ...
. In 2020, Trustly launched in
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
and
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, adding to its existing coverage in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the
US. Trustly generated revenue in 2019, totaling $150 million, up 58% from 2018. In 2020, Trustly had sales of approximately SEK 1.9 billion. In 2020, Trustly established itself in Australia and Canada and is currently present in a total of 30 markets.
History
The company, originally named Glue Finance, was founded in 2008 in
Stockholm
Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...
, Sweden, and signed contracts that same year with the first online retailers. A first investment round was completed in 2009, and development of a second generation technical platform was launched. The company underwent a geographical expansion in 2010, after which its revenues grew by more than 200%. The first office outside of Sweden was opened in
Malta
Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...
and over one million transactions were processed the same year. The second generation platform was launched in 2011, and 25% of the company was sold to the investment group Alfvén & Didrikson.
In 2014, the company entered into a strategic partnership with Groupon as well as PayPal. The 10 million transactions mark was reached and the risk capital firm
Bridgepoint Capital
Bridgepoint Group plc is a British private investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.
History
Bridgepoint was founded as NatWest Equity Partners, a private equity firm part of NatWest. ...
(BDC) invested €23 million to gain a minority stake.
The arrival of Pay N Play epitomises Trustly’s mission to make online payments fast, simple and secure, transforming the way gamblers pay and play at online gambling from 2016. More than 150 brands support payments with Pay N Play. According to Trustly's VP of Gaming Vasilije Lekovic, this number passed 200 brands in 2022.
The Swedish FinTech company ranked #242 on the publication's first ‘FT 1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies’ list in 2017 based on its 3-year growth in revenue and staff.
In March 2018, the private equity fund
Nordic Capital
Nordic Capital private equity funds focus on investments primarily in Northern Europe. Nordic Capital invests in selective industries with a particular focus on Healthcare, Tech & Payments and Financial Services. In addition selective investments ...
bought a majority stake, some 70 percent of the existing shares, in Trustly. Ahead of the deal the company reportedly got valued at roughly €700 million.
In June 2019, Trustly merged with
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
-based online banking payments leader PayWithMyBank. The merger enables merchants with a global footprint to accept online banking payments from European and US consumers.
On June 10, 2020, Trustly announced a new round of investment from a consortium of investors, including
BlackRock
BlackRock, Inc. is an American Multinational corporation, multi-national investment company based in New York City. Founded in 1988, initially as a Enterprise risk management, risk management and fixed income institutional asset manager, BlackR ...
, which valued the company at close to $2 billion.
In August 2020, Trustly expanded into
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
and
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
, marking its first step into the
Asia-Pacific
Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...
region.
In April 2021, Trustly signalled their intention to list publicly on
Nasdaq
The Nasdaq Stock Market () (National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations Stock Market) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the US by volume, and ranked second ...
, Stockholm, seeking a valuation of almost $9bn.
Security
Trustly is a licensed payment institution authorized and supervised by the
Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority
Financial Supervisory Authority ( sv, Finansinspektionen, FI) is the Swedish government agency responsible for financial regulation in Sweden. It is responsible for the oversight, regulation and authorisation of financial markets and their part ...
. It holds a European Payment Services Provider (
PSP) license in accordance with the
Payment Services Directive
The Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2, Directive (EU) 2015/2366, which replaced the Payment Services Directive (PSD), Directive 2007/64/EC) is an EU Directive, administered by the European Commission (Directorate General Internal Market) to ...
(PSD, 2007/64/EC).
A Trustly payment uses strong
two-factor authentication
Multi-factor authentication (MFA; encompassing two-factor authentication, or 2FA, along with similar terms) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or application only after successfully presenting ...
.
Criticism
Trustly faced criticism in 2013 from a competing bank when they used client information to log into the client's
Internet banking
Online banking, also known as internet banking, web banking or home banking, is an electronic payment system that enables customers of a bank or other financial institution to conduct a range of financial transactions through the financial inst ...
. The bank claimed that Trustly had gained access not only to the information required for performing the payment but also to information related to, for example, the client's mutual funds and shareholdings and therefore, banking confidentiality had been compromised.
The controversy has resurfaced in 2016, in
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...
when PayPal switched to Trustly and a number of information security related websites and banks pointed out that the Trustly's practice is inconsistent with PayPal's own guidance to avoid revealing the credentials to third parties. In 2018,
Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority
The Finnish Financial Supervisory Authority (FIN-FSA; in Finnish: Finanssivalvonta iva in Swedish: Finansinspektionen I is the financial regulatory authority of the Finnish government, responsible for the regulation of financial markets in Fin ...
ruled that the
screen scraping
Data scraping is a technique where a computer program extracts data from human-readable output coming from another program.
Description
Normally, data transfer between programs is accomplished using data structures suited for automated processin ...
technique used by Trustly is illegal.
Trustly defended itself by saying that the company sets out a clear agreement for what information the company may access for performing payments and establishing identity, in the same way as banks. Like the banks, Trustly is under the supervision of the Swedish
Financial Supervisory Authority as a licensed Payment Institute.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Trustly
Financial services companies of Sweden
Software companies of Sweden
Companies based in Stockholm