Consumer/News/ The Trustpilot IPO is a £670m payday for European VCs European VC funds Draper Esprit, Index Ventures, Northzone and Seed Capital have 67% of the company. By Michael Stothard 22 March 2021 \Consumer The Sifted Podcast — the EU gets serious on startups By The Sifted Podcast Team 4 July 2022 Consumer/News/ The Trustpilot IPO is a £670m payday for European VCs European VC funds Draper Esprit, Index Ventures, Northzone and Seed Capital have 67% of the company. By Michael Stothard 22 March 2021 Consumer-review site Trustpilot is set to start trading on the London Stock Exchange this week at a valuation of around £1bn, providing a big payday for the mostly European venture capital funds which supported the company. According to company filings, which takes into account everyone with over three per cent of the shares of the company, European VC funds Draper Esprit, Index Ventures, Northzone and Seed Capital had 67% of the company or £670m worth of shares. This is not always the case with hot European tech companies. Romanian software company UiPath, for instance, was funded by European VCs early on but in the later stages, the rounds were dominated by global or US funds. Trustpilot has been a slow-burn success story though compared to UiPath. Founded in 2007, the company has grown at a steady clip for years, today becoming one of the leading sites for online reviews with a mission to improve transparency on the internet. Mühlmann started Trustpilot (literally) from his parent’s garage, initially a side business to his already up-and-running e-commerce startup. “At the time, I considered the e-commerce business a rather big success but after a while, I thought it would be more fun to do something that had more meaning,” he told Sifted back in 2019. The company has become an important part of the online world, with startups such as energy supplier Bulb to money transfer site Transferwise boast about their top star rating. At a time when online shopping is increasing, this is only more important. According to company filings, Draper Esprit has 16.9% of the shares in the company, or around £169m worth. Index has 16.47%, Northzone 17% and Seed Capital 17%. The other big shareholders are Vitruvian Partners, a European private equity firm with 17% and Sunley House Capital, a US affiliate of Advent International which does public and crossover pre-IPO investments, which has 7.35%. Peter Holten Mühlmann, the CEO of Trustpilot, has a 4.39% stake, or £44m worth. Related Articles Even pets are learning online over lockdown By Serena Tarling Click here to read more How serious is Klarna about sustainability? We ask the CEO By Sarah Drumm Click here to read more Ray Studios raises $3m to get rid of that tattoo of your ex’s name for good By Tim Smith in Barcelona Click here to read more Inside the Supercell founder’s secret high-tech movie studio in Finland By Eleanor Warnock Click here to read more Most Read 1 Member \Venture Capital German VCs are the second best paid in Europe 2 \Startup Life Where are Europe’s top digital nomad villages? 3 \Venture Capital New platform enables ‘everyday’ folk to invest in VC 4 \Venture Capital Europe gets its first creator-founded, creator-backed VC 5 \Public & Academic The European Commission has a big new plan for startups. Here’s what you need to know about it 1 Join the conversation Subscribe newest oldest Notify of new follow-up comments new replies to my comments Dan TraversThis is truly a horror story for investors that failed to exit at the IPO (or very soon thereafter). Shares now trading at 79 p.
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