- Trusted customer review platform TrustRadius recently announced it raised $12.5 million in Series C funding led by Next Coast Ventures
TrustRadius — a trusted customer review platform for B2B technology — announced it raised $12.5 million in Series C funding led by Next Coast Ventures with continued participation by returning investors Mayfield Fund and LiveOak Ventures. Including this round of funding, TrustRadius raised $25 million in total equity financing.
This financing round will be used for further accelerating the company’s efforts to scale all teams to capitalize on the rapid adoption of customer reviews as part of the enterprise technology buying process with a focus on sales and engineering.
“I founded TrustRadius because I experienced first hand the consequences of making the wrong technology selection, and witnessed how difficult it was for our team to conduct effective due diligence with resources like analyst reports and vendor-driven references and case studies. Business technology buyers want the whole truth before they buy. They want to hear from people who face the same challenges – their peers in similar companies. We’re experiencing rapid acceleration in the adoption of customer reviews in B2B mirroring what’s already occurred in B2C. We wanted to partner with an investor that understood this trend – has invested in the consumer review space and enterprise software – and could both guide and fuel our next phase of growth,” said TrustRadius founder and CEO Vinay Bhagat.
User reviews are considered the second most used source of information in B2B purchasing. And 56% of B2B buyers use reviews as a key resource while fewer than 25% of buyers rely on analysts. TrustRadius is considered one of the most trusted customer review platform for business technology. TrustRadius’s in-depth reviews average about 5 times the length of other sites and it clarifies product differences, describes use cases, and comprehensively discuss their pros and cons.
“As a company that sells to both individual consumers and IT buyers, peer insights have become an integral part of today’s economic cycle for technology,” added William Wagner — the CEO of TrustRadius customer LogMeIn. “Software buyers today want to see detailed reviews from existing users to help them make their purchase decisions. TrustRadius is empowering the modern buyer to make confident decisions about enterprise-grade software.”
TrustRadius also helps leading tech companies like LogMeIn, TIBCO, and Solarwinds garner in-depth customer insights, market to high-intent buyers, and generate trusted customer testimony that informs buyers about product differentiation and engenders trust. The reviews are hosted both on TrustRadius and are syndicated to vendors’ own sales and marketing channels to improve conversion and accelerate purchase.
“Enterprise software is a nearly half a trillion-dollar industry with high-quality, trusted reviews becoming one of the most effective tools for capturing market share, and NCV’s market research with major players in the software industry confirmed TrustRadius has the highest caliber reviews in the industry,” explained Thomas Ball — the co-founder and managing director of Next Coast Ventures who will be joining TrustRadius’ board as part of the firm’s investment. “I’ve had the pleasure to work with both Vinay and co-founder Scott Miller so I have seen firsthand their relentless focus on the customer and their unwillingness to compromise on quality, and I am thrilled to have the chance to work with them again as they expand their footprint on the ground in Austin.”
And TrustRadius recently added Jennifer Griffin as the head of customer success. Griffin’s track record includes similar successful programs at Bazaarvoice and Dosh.
TrustRadius now has 59 employees and it is planning to double in size through 2020 as the company grows its recurring revenue by 223% and more than triples its customer base.
