Trudenty joins Mastercard Start Path

London, 12th February 2025 – Trudenty, a startup tackling first-party and Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud through collaborative, privacy-preserving data sharing technology, is proud to announce its participation in Mastercard’s award winning Start Path program. This opportunity places Trudenty alongside over 450 global innovators, including current cohort participants such as Ozone API and Futurebank, reinforcing its mission to redefine fraud prevention through data sharing.

Empowering Financial Ecosystems through Privacy-Preserving Data Sharing

Trudenty’s Consumer Trust Network is transforming fraud prevention by enabling secure, privacy-focused collaboration between merchants, issuers, and acquirers. The network generates a Consumer Trust Index, providing a 360º view of consumer behaviour across the ecosystem—helping businesses identify and differentiate between trusted consumers and first-party fraudsters, preventing fraudulent activity before it happens

“Having experienced fraud both as a merchant and a consumer, I saw a white space in today’s payments infrastructure,” says Lerato Matsio, CEO of Trudenty. “Participating in Mastercard’s Start Path provides us with an opportunity to scale our solution, strengthen fraud prevention efforts, and protect both consumers and businesses.”

The Rising Threat of First-Party and Push Payment Fraud

According to the Javelin Strategy & Research 2021 Identity Fraud Report, incidents of first-party fraud are rising by nearly 20% year-over-year, with Mastercard estimating that first-party fraud costs merchants approximately $50 billion annually.

Mastercard Start Path: A Catalyst for Innovation

Mastercard Start Path is a global startup engagement program designed to support fintech companies with strategic guidance, market access, and technical expertise. Since 2014, the program has supported founders' innovation across broad categories like open banking, blockchain, small business solutions and more."As the fintech landscape continues to evolve at a rapid pace, Mastercard is embracing opportunities to support and collaborate with startups to build the future of innovation through the Start Path New Networks Program,” says Sabrina Tharani, SVP of Global Fintech Programs at Mastercard. "Mastercard has selected Trudenty  to join its ecosystem of innovators and will provide opportunities to access its network of partners, mentorship opportunities, and resources to support their scaling journey.”

Data sharing is now recognised as a crucial tool in fraud prevention. According to PwC’s Global Economic Crime and Fraud Survey 2021, 66% of organisations believe that collaborative efforts, including data sharing, are essential to reducing fraud risks. Similarly, an Accenture 2021 report found that over 65% of financial institutions reported actively investing in data-sharing initiatives to improve fraud prevention. In the report of The Payment Association’s 2023 whitepaper on “Data sharing to prevent economic crime” which surveyed tier one banks, neobanks, technology suppliers, government departments and regulators in the UK; roughly 80% of respondents cited data protection as the main challenge preventing data sharing. Through Trudenty’s application of privacy-preserving technologies and machine-learning, the company has built a data sharing mechanism that ensures data protection and provides transparency and trust to companies.

Trudenty is committed to building a future where financial institutions and merchants can more effectively identify trusted consumers and friendly fraudsters in real time; to prevent losses owing to fraud, enable personalised consumer journeys that boost experience and support process automation particularly for claims and disputes.

Join the Consumer Trust Network today to stop first party and APP fraud. Get started here or reach out to sales@trudenty.com