E-com reviews platform for India & SEA TrustedCompany raises $1M from Tengelmann Ventures, others

Malaysia- and Hong Kong-based TrustedCompany, which offers an online stores review platform for emerging markets like Southeast Asia and India, has raised $1 million in its series A round of funding led by Germany-based Tengelmann Ventures, with participation from existing investor Asia Venture Group (AVG). 500 Startups' venture partner Khailee Ng also co-invested. The funds will be used to grow TrustedCompany's sales and marketing resources across the region as well as to start operations in Africa and Brazil. A portion of the funds will also be used for product innovation.

" Tengelmann will help us execute our vision even more rapidly and globally, and with the local experience, perspective and relationships of 500 Startups, we will be able to further grow our local trust in Southeast Asia," said Frederik Krass, co-founder and MD of TrustedCompany.

Launched in November last year with an initial seed investment from AVG, TrustedCompany is an open third-party platform for anyone to submit reviews of online stores. The startup has developed algorithms to root fake reviews out. Some of its clients are Lenskart (India), iMoney.my, 8Share and myiMart (Malaysia), and Pricearea (Indonesia).

According to a TechCrunch report in TechCrunch, since launching the firm has seen month-over-month usage growth of more than 40 percent. The site has over 500,000 company profiles on its site that consumers can contribute reviews to.

In India, TrustedCompany competes with Mouthshut.com.