merchant-of-record
(3)
FastSpring Sells the Software So Its Makers Don’t Have To
A checkout is the visible inch of a global sale. FastSpring takes responsibility for the tax filings, payment routes, subscription logic and buyer support underneath it - becoming the seller on paper so digital companies can keep building.
Trustap
Trustap is an Irish fintech that provides escrow-style, milestone-based payment infrastructure for online marketplaces, ecommerce platforms and individuals. Acting as the merchant of record, it holds a buyer's funds until goods or services are confirmed as delivered, then releases them to the seller - reducing fraud, chargebacks and disputes for high-value and peer-to-peer transactions. Founded in Cork in 2017 by Conor Lyden after he was scammed buying football tickets, the company now works with 250+ partners across roughly 27 countries and is building Trustap Index, a product that makes marketplace listings machine-readable and transactable by AI shopping agents.
ZeroSettle
ZeroSettle is a drop-in SDK that lets mobile app developers skip Apple's 30% cut on in-app purchases by switching users to direct billing - charging just 5% + $0.50 per transaction instead. Built by two former Apple software engineers and backed by Y Combinator (W26), ZeroSettle arrived at the exact moment the Epic v. Apple ruling cracked open a $150B+ market. Setup takes 15 minutes, and developers get instant Stripe payouts, built-in tax compliance across 190+ countries, and smart conversion flows to migrate existing subscribers - all without touching App Store rules.