Trustpilot

Trustpilot was founded in 2007 by Peter Holten Mühlmann, who then served as chief executive officer for 16 years and led the company from start-up to an international business listed on the London Stock Exchange.⁠[1][1]

After announcing its intention to float on March 8, 2021, Trustpilot Group plc priced its initial public offering at 265 pence per share on March 23, giving it a market capitalization of approximately £1.08 billion at the start of conditional dealings; the offer comprised approximately 161 million shares sold by existing shareholders and approximately 17.6 million new shares issued by the company, a total of about £473 million representing 43.6% of the issued share capital on admission, plus an over-allotment option of approximately 26.8 million shares. Conditional dealings began on the London Stock Exchange that day under the ticker TRST.⁠[2][2][2][2][2][2]

On March 26, 2021, the company’s entire issued share capital of 409,204,774 shares was admitted to the premium listing segment of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Official List and to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s main market under the ticker TRST.⁠[3]

On September 13, 2023, Adrian Blair, who had spent seven years as global chief operating officer of Just Eat, joined the company as chief executive officer; that month founder Peter Holten Mühlmann stepped down as chief executive officer to become founder and non-executive director.⁠[1][1][1][1]

On December 4, 2025, short seller Grizzly Research said it held a short position in Trustpilot and published a negative report contending that Trustpilot pressures businesses to pay for subscriptions to manage their reputations and improve their ratings, and that there is a market of third parties selling fake reviews on the platform. Trustpilot’s shares closed down 32% that day, the steepest one-day drop since its listing, cutting its market value by about £243 million to about £517 million.⁠[4][4][4][4][4]

The company responded the same day that the report’s claims were selective and misleading and omitted key context and publicly available facts. The next day the board issued a point-by-point rebuttal, saying the report contained factual inaccuracies and false claims intended to hurt the share price and that Trustpilot had not been contacted for comment; the board said more than 97% of businesses on the platform do not pay for a subscription, free and paying businesses must follow the same rules, about 200 people work on platform trust and integrity, 6.7 million reviews had been removed so far that year, and it was considering all appropriate responses.⁠[5][6][6][6][6][6]

The Italian Competition Authority (AGCM) opened an investigation on May 6, 2025, and on March 23, 2026, fined Trustpilot Group Plc, Trustpilot A/S and Trustpilot S.r.l. €4 million for an unfair commercial practice, finding that the companies had not carried out checks adequate to guarantee the genuineness of reviews on the platform (including reviews labeled as verified), had not adequately provided consumers with information on how the platform works and on businesses’ use of paid services, and had used interface-design techniques typical of so-called dark patterns, in breach of the Italian Consumer Code.⁠[7][8][8][8][8][8]

Trustpilot said the same day that it strongly disagreed with the finding, would robustly appeal and rejected the “dark patterns” characterization; it said that in 2025 it removed 7.8 million fake reviews, took action against 454 paying businesses and terminated the subscriptions of 121 of them for review gating or fake reviews. In its 2026 half-year report the company included the fine in non-recurring matters, said the appeal was ongoing and that Italy represents about 5% of group revenue, and did not expect a material impact on the group.⁠[9][9][9][9][10][10]

On March 24, 2026, Advent Global Opportunities, the public markets platform of Advent International, sold 21,593,421 Trustpilot shares at 214 pence per share, raising about £46 million; Trustpilot received no proceeds. After the transaction, Advent retained a residual stake of about 250,000 shares through a separate fund.⁠[1][11][11][11]

As announced on March 24, 2026, Marcus Roy became chief financial officer and joined the board on September 14, 2026; his predecessor Hanno Damm left the board on the same date and stayed with the business until October to complete the transition.⁠[12][12]

In the first half of 2026, Trustpilot’s bookings were $171.2 million, up 22% year on year (18% at constant currency); revenue was $151.4 million, up 23%; and adjusted EBITDA was $26.3 million, up 46%. Because of non-recurring matters including the AGCM fine and a provision for US sales taxes, the company posted a net loss of about $1 million for the half.⁠[10][10][10][10][10]

Trustpilot is an open review platform: consumers can review any business worldwide with or without the business’s consent, and businesses can read and respond to reviews but cannot hide genuine ones. The company operates a freemium subscription model under which paying businesses get tools to invite, respond to and analyze customer feedback; as of September 2026, the platform hosted more than 394 million reviews.⁠[13][13][12]

In 2025, Trustpilot’s revenue grew 20% at constant currency to $261 million, with average annual contract value up 23% to $10.9k; it had 1,108 employees at year-end and returned $72 million in cash to shareholders through share buybacks during the year. The company is headquartered in Copenhagen; its parent, Trustpilot Group plc, is registered in England and Wales and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 index. As of October 2026, the company remains listed on the London Stock Exchange and continues to publish share buyback announcements.⁠[1][1][1][12][1][1][14]

Trustpilot: Official website: https://www.trustpilot.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

X: Public account: https://x.com/Trustpilot (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trustpilot (opens in a new window)⁠[13]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/trustpilotreviews (opens in a new window)⁠[13]