New debt and equity will help scale the network as talent pipeline from Snap continues
Trust, the growth network for emerging brands, announced $25 million in debt from Upper90 and $5 million in equity from existing and new investors, including Sapphire Sport and Michael Vaughan (Venmo’s former COO). Brands that join the Trust network can band together to get benchmarked KPIs, trusted insights, and extended payment terms for their growth investments.
“The new debt line from Upper90 will help fuel growth for an amazing group of emerging brands looking to access Trust’s growth network. Bringing on these new strategic investors was an opportunity we couldn’t pass on,” said Trust CEO James Borow.
Since August, brands using the Trust network have shared over 650,000 anonymized transactions with each other, while more than $500 million in digital marketing spend has been indexed. Buying power across the Trust network currently exceeds $100 million.
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More than 600,000 emerging brands generated over $200B in sales last year in the United States alone. Brands on the Trust network include Apothékary, Tea Drops, Brightland, Nomadica, and KYX, to name a few. Shizu Okusa, CEO of Apothékary, said, “Trust is building a Bloomberg-like terminal for today’s direct-to-consumer businesses. In a post-iOS 14 privacy world, access to data and shared knowledge is a game-changer. Trust gives us a window into data we otherwise wouldn’t have.”
Trust, led by the team that built Snap’s ad platform, has raised $14 million in equity to date and is backed by Lerer Hippeau, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Manta Ray, Sapphire Sport, Upfront Ventures, and Upper90.
“With a powerhouse team hailing from Snap, Trust is applying a unique understanding of consumer social to an enterprise fintech product – creating a growth network for DTC brands who know exactly why they’re there – to grow smarter and faster, together,” said Chloe Steinberg, partner at Sapphire Sport.
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“A no-brainer for any DTC brand. Trust helps us spend smarter and extend our cash flow at the same time,” said Sashee Chandran, CEO of Tea Drops.
Trust also announced today that Matt Trandall, who spent the last six years building Snap’s partnership organization, is joining Trust as Senior Vice President of Partnerships and Community.
“Our core team left Snap fully believing emerging brands could build stronger businesses if they had the ability to band together and learn from one another. We’re excited about the future and today’s announcement is as much about these brands as it is about us,” said Borow.