Outpost, the AI-powered payments and compliance infrastructure platform for cross-border commerce, has raised $17.5m in a Series A funding round led by Ribbit, the venture firm behind category-defining companies such as Revolut, Coinbase, and Stripe.
The round also received backing from existing investor Better Tomorrow Ventures, which previously led a $3m seed round less than a year ago. Angel investors participating in the raise include executives from Revolut, Uber, Affirm, Airwallex, Checkout, and others.
The funding comes against a backdrop of growing complexity in international trade. Global trade reached record levels in 2025, with UNCTAD projecting it would surpass $35 trillion for the first time. However, a shift towards protectionism — driven by rising US tariffs and a broader rewiring of supply chains and regional trade alliances — has created a more fragmented trading environment. Governments are also tightening enforcement and updating tax regimes more frequently, with more than 20,000 indirect tax jurisdictions worldwide now actively revising rates and compliance requirements.
Outpost’s platform is designed to absorb this burden for merchants. At its core is a proprietary AI engine trained on millions of pages of trade regulation, which monitors more than 20,000 tax rates and automatically applies the correct tax treatment and customs classification for each transaction. The company also operates dedicated local entities in each market, giving merchants access to domestic payment rails, local acquiring, and alternative payment methods. By processing transactions locally rather than cross-border, Outpost says merchants see 10% higher approval rates and significantly lower processing costs.
The company offers two core products: Merchant of Record, through which Outpost creates a dedicated local entity for merchants in each target market with no pooling, enabling optimised merchant codes and higher approval rates; and Tax of Record, under which Outpost assumes full liability for VAT, GST, and sales tax worldwide, including audit risk and penalties, while monitoring regulatory changes through its AI engine.
Outpost is currently supporting merchants across Europe, North America, LATAM, and Asia, including subscription platforms, consumer software companies, and cross-border e-commerce brands.
Outpost chief executive and founder Will Mahon-Heap, who previously led Revolut’s international expansion, said: “Brexit, shifting tariffs, and regulatory fragmentation have made cross-border commerce more hostile than at any point in the last two decades. Merchants are forced to choose between spending millions on consultants and local entity setup, or carrying enormous risk on payments and compliance. Outpost exists to eliminate that trade-off. We’ve built the only infrastructure that handles everything from local payment processing to full tax liability, allowing companies to treat international expansion with the same ease as selling locally.”
Nick Shalek, General Partner at Ribbit, said: “Cross-border commerce represents a massive, multi-trillion dollar opportunity that has been historically held back by fragmented infrastructure. Outpost isn’t just offering a better payment gateway; they’ve introduced a novel model that fundamentally changes how merchants access global markets. By absorbing the operational and compliance burdens that stifle expansion, Outpost is building a category-defining platform for the next era of global trade.”
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