CPE News (12.10.2021) – Payment Rails has raised $7 million in Series A funding from Pace Capital.
Payment Rails has also rebranded as Trolley. Chris Paik, General Partner of Pace Capital, has joined the Trolley board of directors.
Founded by Tim Nixon, Trolley is building the payouts platform for the internet economy: a payouts ecosystem that allows businesses to send payments around the world, as fast and effortlessly as sending an email.
Trolley intends to use new funding to increase the number of direct integrations with top ERP and accounting platforms; expand tax compliance offerings into markets beyond the United States; add more local and instant payout options, opening a broader market for payouts; further expand the Trolley team, which currently numbers 40 employees. This funding will also let Trolley expand its revenue generation engine, building the sales and marketing capabilities it will need to expand into new markets.
Trolley previously secured seed funding from GreenSky Accelerator Fund.
photo credit: Trolley
Company Blog
Payment Rails rebrands as Trolley; Closes $7 Million in Series A funding
December 7, 2021
Brand update reflects Trolley’s ambitions to drive payout-based growth; Investment validates Trolley’s progress in meeting the payout needs of a borderless, internet-based economy
TORONTO, DECEMBER 7th, 2021 – Canadian Fintech startup Payment Rails today revealed that it is rebranding as Trolley—the payouts platform for the internet economy. The newly renamed Trolley also announced its recent $7M Series A funding round led by Pace Capital.
Payment Rails rebrands as Trolley
Founded in 2015, Trolley is a payouts platform that allows businesses to automate and manage payouts, collect recipient tax and banking information, and mitigate fraud and risk. In this time, Trolley has become the payouts solution of choice for hundreds of businesses, paying out to over 1.1 million different creators, musicians, artists, makers, vendors, on-demand workers, and suppliers.
“Payment Rails is an industry-insider term that implies infrastructure, and we’ve gone beyond just payouts infrastructure,” said Tim Nixon, CEO & founder of Trolley. “Over the past six years, our offering has evolved from a mass-payout solution to a global payouts ecosystem—one which addresses many payout-adjacent problems. The choice of Trolley nods to our past yet speaks to our future: Whether our customers need payouts to new countries or currencies, mass payout automation, tax form collection and reporting, or risk management solutions, Trolley is a vehicle for them to grow their businesses.”
Along with a new company name, the Trolley team has also updated the company’s brand, and launched a new corporate website (trolley.com), which is live today.
“Through this organic process, we’re elevating our brand to a new level, one that repositions our offerings and reflects Trolley’s capacity to help our customers tackle the wide number of challenges they are facing,” said Vincent Guérin, Trolley’s vice president of marketing.
Series A funding led by Pace Capital
Demand for Trolley’s payouts platform skyrocketed since the beginning of 2020. The trend toward near-universal remote work prompted many companies to expand their willingness to work with (and therefore need to pay) contractors and suppliers from around the globe. Worker shortages added to this pressure and added a need to make workflows around payouts as efficient as possible.
The $7M CAD investment round, led by Pace Capital and their general partner, Chris Paik—who has joined the Trolley Board of Directors—will allow Trolley to expand and accelerate its product roadmap to tackle the needs of this rapidly growing market. Trolley will also be enhancing its existing banking networks and payout methods to allow more participants from all geographies.
“Trolley is solving an issue that lies at the heart of the internet economy: international payouts. Having watched Twitch and Patreon work through payment orchestration challenges for their increasingly international-based content creators, it was clear that every other creator platform and marketplace would eventually run into the same issues,” said Chris Paik, general partner at Pace Capital. “The leadership team at Trolley has demonstrated—through an amazing product— that they are perfectly suited to tackle this problem.”
Specifically, Trolley plans to leverage Pace Capital’s investment to:
Increase the number of direct integrations with top ERP and accounting platforms
Expand tax compliance offerings into markets beyond the United States
Add more local and instant payout options, opening a broader market for payouts
Further expand the Trolley team, which currently numbers 40 employees.
“Our vision is to unlock the collective economic opportunity of the internet – for everyone – by building a truly global payouts ecosystem,” said Nixon. “This funding allows us to better enable businesses to reach workers from all corners of the world and, through that, offer creators, on-demand workers, and suppliers the ability to bring their specialized talents to a global market.”
“Creators and suppliers need to be treated like first-class citizens of the platforms they contribute to.” Paik finished, “That’s what excites me about Trolley’s rebrand and their roadmap. With each product improvement, they remove friction in the payout process—for their customers and creators and suppliers worldwide.”
About Trolley
Trolley is building the payouts platform for the internet economy. With a fully white-labelable payout management platform and a robust API, Trolley gives users the ability to make and manage payments to 215+ countries in 135+ different currencies. Trolley is quickly becoming the payouts platform of choice for businesses that need to pay creators, musicians, artists, makers, vendors, on-demand workers, or any other type of supplier. More information is available at trolley.com.
About Pace Capital
Founded in 2019, Pace Capital is a New York-based, early-stage venture capital firm focused on series A investments. Led by Chris Paik and Jordan Cooper, Pace Capital currently has $150M worth of funds under management. More information is available at pacecapital.com.