It is undeniable that e-commerce industry has been one of most promising areas of business all over the world, particularly in Asia. Given this fact, it is crucial to have a guidance on determining which companies give us the real deal and which ones are fraud. This is where the TrustedCompany comes in. As a matter of fact, the startup has just successfully attracted investors to invests USD 1 million in their latest Series A funding.

Trust is indeed the main fuel of e-commerce industry. In fact, based on a survey by Nielsen, the transaction’s security and presence of fraud are actually what the consumers in Southeast Asia mostly concern about.

According to TechCruch, TrustedCompany, which was founded in November 2013, is a platform that provides open reviews about e-commerce websites in developing countries. Interestingly, the number of people visiting the platform keeps increasing from time to time, allowing 500,000 of company profiles joining the startup’s giant database so far.

Frederik Krass, the Co-Founder and Managing Director of TrustedCompany, stated that the funding would be allocated to support their expansion in Southeast Asia, as well as to Africa and Brazil. This series A funding itself was led by three main investors: Tengelmann Ventures, 500 Startups, and Asia Venture Group (AVG).

“From this moment on, we would make use of the funding to expand our market in Southeast Asia and India, initiate new innovations, enhance our sales in that particular area, and put our feet in Brazil and Africa,” Frederik said (17/9).

To simplify the authentication process, TrustedCompany integrates Facebook into their services. This has indirectly put themselves into the same competition as a number of forum and platforms, such as Mouthshut, Complaintsboard, and Facebook Group. The platform itself has made its services available in Bahasa Indonesia.

“TrustedCompany becomes a really helpful guidance when it comes to identify online fraud, and we are positively sure that a second opinion from a verified third party would boost consumers’ trust towards particular vendors who serve the real deals,”

Would you agree?

[Header illustration: TrustedCompany.com]