Outpost Raises $17.5M Series A to Scale Its Merchant-of-Record Platform for Global Commerce

The complexity of selling internationally has never been greater. Escalating tariff disputes, post-Brexit regulatory fragmentation, and a patchwork of national VAT, GST, and sales tax regimes have made cross-border commerce an increasingly costly and legally precarious endeavour for e-commerce businesses and software companies alike. Against this backdrop, the infrastructure layer that handles legal and financial liability on behalf of merchants — the merchant of record model — has attracted renewed investor attention.

London-based Outpost has raised $17.5 million (approximately €15 million) in a Series A round led by Ribbit Capital to scale its AI-powered merchant-of-record and tax-of-record platform. The funding follows a $3 million seed round led by Better Tomorrow Ventures less than a year ago, bringing the company’s total capital raised to more than $20 million.

Founded in 2024 by Will Mahon-Heap — who previously led international expansion at Revolut — Outpost operates as a legally liable entity on behalf of merchants across payments, tax, and compliance. The platform offers two core products: a Merchant of Record service that processes transactions through dedicated local entities in each market, and a Tax of Record service that manages VAT, GST, and sales tax obligations globally. By routing transactions through local entities rather than processing them cross-border, Outpost claims to deliver 10% higher payment approval rates alongside a meaningful reduction in processing costs. Merchants gain protection from audit risk, effectively outsourcing their compliance exposure to Outpost.

At the heart of the platform is a proprietary AI engine trained on millions of pages of trade regulation. The system monitors more than 20,000 tax rates in real time and automatically applies the correct tax treatment and customs classification to each transaction. Early customers span subscription platforms, consumer software companies, and e-commerce businesses operating across Europe, North America, Latin America, and Asia.

Ribbit Capital and Better Tomorrow Ventures Back Global Commerce Infrastructure

The Series A is led by Ribbit Capital, the specialist fintech fund whose portfolio includes Revolut, Robinhood, and Nubank. Nick Shalek of Ribbit Capital noted that “cross-border commerce represents a massive opportunity that has been historically held back by fragmented infrastructure.” Better Tomorrow Ventures, which led the seed round, also participated in the Series A, signalling continued conviction in Outpost’s trajectory. Angel investors include executives from Revolut, Uber, Affirm, Airwallex, and Checkout.com — a roster that underscores both the scale of the perceived market opportunity and Outpost’s positioning within the global payments ecosystem.

Mahon-Heap was direct about the problem his company is built to address. “Merchants are forced to choose between spending millions on consultants and compliance infrastructure, or carrying enormous risk on payments and compliance,” he said. His background at Revolut — where the company constructed regulated entities across dozens of jurisdictions in rapid succession — gives Outpost a credible operational foundation for its own multi-jurisdiction expansion strategy.

Trade Complexity Creates the Case for Merchant-of-Record Platforms

The timing of Outpost’s raise reflects broader macro trends reshaping global commerce. The imposition of new tariff regimes, particularly from the United States, has forced many businesses to reconsider their international distribution strategies. Meanwhile, Brexit continues to add friction to UK-EU trade flows, and diverging digital services tax regimes across Asia-Pacific are complicating expansion for software companies. For businesses that lack the resources to build bespoke compliance infrastructure, delegating liability to a specialist platform is an increasingly attractive proposition.

Outpost is not alone in the merchant-of-record space — Paddle, FastSpring, and Lemon Squeezy operate comparable models — but it is positioning itself as an infrastructure layer capable of supporting a wider range of jurisdictions and transaction types than existing platforms. The Series A funding will be directed towards product development, expanding jurisdictional coverage, and growing headcount to meet what the company describes as global demand for liability-free commerce infrastructure.